Children’s Books That Focus on Climate Activists Help Us Appreciate Our Planet on Earth Day and Beyond
Today, we reflect on how we can support the earth in the challenges it faces, as well as the many moments of awe and humility that the Earth provides.
It’s Earth Day, an occasion to think beyond oneself towards future generations and to continue to reassess words like impact and tradeoffs.
The earth is resilient but needs our presence and our awareness — lest we cross a point of no return for many of its beloved species. This day has only gained in urgency and importance in time. We must continue to learn, to be present and to recognize that each of our decisions have impacts beyond ourselves.
Essential organizations and initiatives continue to monitor our progress in combating the great crisis of our time, climate change, and provide the necessary toolkits to getting people on the track towards a solution.
Though important curriculum has been developed by organizations like Climate Generation, the Alliance for Climate Education and Our Climate, Our Future, empowering our educators needs to be an even higher priority if they are to imbue their students with the values to make a contribution. For example, UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goals have given us a clear bearing for helping shape communities and networks that have joined together to put the planet and their communities first.
This year the Getting Smart team was gifted a set of Earth Day specific children’s books which helped our kids to learn more about the heroes who fight to preserve and protect our Earth.
- Greta and the Giants: inspired by Greta Thunberg’s stand to save the world By Zoë Tucker and illustrated by Zoe Persico
- Little People, BIG DREAMS: Greta Thunberg By Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and illustrated by Anke Weckmann
- ABC for Me: ABC Earth-Friendly Me : From Action to Zero Waste, here are 26 things a kid can do to care for the Earth! By Christiane Engel
- Let’s Save Our Planet: Forests : Discover the Facts. Be Inspired. Make A Difference. By Jess French and illustrated by Alexander Mostov
- Baby Loves Earth : An ABC of Our Planet By Jennifer Eckford and illustrated by Teresa Bellon
- The Story of Climate Change : A first book about how we can help save our planet By Catherine Barr and Steve Williams, illustrated by Amy Husband and Mike Love
- The Environment: Explore, create and investigate! By Jonathan Litton, and illustrated by Paulina Morgan
- Little People, BIG DREAMS: Jane Goodall By Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and illustrated by Beatrice Cerocchi
Some of their thoughts are below:
“Baby Loves Earth allows little learners to understand the importance of key aspects of our earth. The illustrations are colorful and keep our kids engaged. As they grow older, each word will drive rich discussions about why it’s essential to keep our planet healthy.”
“I did not know that elephants were the key to not having that many forests in the savannah.”
“People can do better by not cutting down trees – and that hurts animal habitats!”
“Greta is a kind of superhero I didn’t know about before. Kids can make a difference and help save our forests.”
“As a parent, these books provided a great way to help share the story of climate change and our role in it with a younger audience. It served as a starting point for family conversations about improving the earth and being mindful of our impact.”
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