5 Inspiring Picture Books About the Environment

With settings ranging from a coral reef to a desert to Antarctica, each of these books ingeniously explores how our everyday behavior leaves its mark on the world. And each delivers a lesson on how kids can do their bit to help preserve the planet on Earth Day and beyond.

Henry Cole, One Little Bag: An Amazing Journey (Scholastic, April 7): This wordless and beautifully rendered pen-and-ink tale follows the surprisingly long life of one paper bag, from the moment its source tree is cut down to its final touching and purposeful moment decades later. In between, the bag serves as a boy’s carryall and a family keepsake; if a paper bag lasting a generation seems a touch unrealistic, skip to the author’s note, where Cole recalls hanging on to one paper bag for three years. “Beautifully effective as both nostalgia trip and lesson in conservation,” the book encourages readers to think about preserving things that we often toss away without a second thought.

Lara Hawthorne, Alba and the Ocean Cleanup (Big Picture Press, March 17): Alba is a fish who witnesses her colorful home on an ocean reef slowly bleach and degrade as trash keeps accumulating. Lured by a shiny pearl, Alba soon becomes trapped in a plastic bottle herself. Hawthorne’s “hopeful fable” follows Alba’s crisis and eventual rescue by a young girl, who in turn inspires her community to participate in a group effort to reduce plastic waste. The colorful cutout-style illustrations (evoking Eric Carle) help draw young readers into the message that individual gestures can spark bigger movements to save our ecosystems.

Nanette Heffernan, illustrated by Bao Luu, Earth Hour: A Lights-Out Event for Our Planet by (Charlesbridge, Jan. 21): This globe-trotting book introduces young readers to the annual 60-minute lights-out that people around the world take part in during the March equinox. Leaping from the Great Pyramids to São Paulo to Paris to Antarctica to Sydney, the story shows just how reliant we are on energy resources and the importance of mindful consumption. Contrasting bright light-bulb yellows with lush and layered nighttime blues during Earth Hour, the illustrations invitingly visualize the difference our energy use makes.

Sophia Spencer, with Margaret McNamara, illustrated by Kerascoët, The Bug Girl (A True Story) (Schwartz Wade/Random, Feb. 11): In 2017, then-8-year-old Sophia was ridiculed by her classmates for her love of bugs, prompting her mother to look for an entomologist who could give the girl a pep talk. Sophia got much more than that: The outpouring of support from scientists worldwide became a viral sensation complete with its own hashtag (#BugsR4Girls). In this inspirational book, she shares how she first became enchanted with insects, her struggle to be understood by her peers, and her sudden community of global supporters. Sophia delivers a big story with a lot of charm and humility, and the book smartly works double duty as an anti-bullying tale and handbook for budding entomologists: The closing pages feature a substantive guide to some of Spencer’s favorite bugs.

Eileen Spinelli, illustrated by Rogério Coelho, One Earth (WorthyKids, March 3): Counting from one to 10 and back again, Spinelli’s story is a sprightly rhyming take on the reduce-reuse-recycle message. Conservation suggestions are neatly tucked into the book’s rhythms (“Four pairs of socks with holes? You can learn to sew. / Three avocado seeds? Plant and watch them grow.”) Coelho’s painterly images highlight kids interacting with nature and working to preserve it, with a gentle climactic warning at the end of the countdown to remember that there’s “only one” planet.