In a world where research for so many young people takes place on the internet, it’s so nice to find books that are both educational and beautiful! Today, Jemma, English teacher and mom of 4 is here sharing 9 awesome nature books from Quarto Publishers that will help inspire a love of nature in your children. These nature-focused books are perfect for homeschoolers or for any kids excited about learning about the world around them and how they can help save and protect it. These books cover a range of nature-related topics, from the environment to endangered animals, and celebrate the diversity of our beautiful world. Each of these books will encourage your child to appreciate nature, want to protect it, and inspire action.
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Nature books for kids
We’re huge fans of nature books around our house. If we can’t get outside, I like giving my kids the next best thing…books about the outdoors! Many nature books are filled with facts, beautiful illustrations, and lots to learn. Kids love reading them over and over, learning something, or noticing something different every time. Today, I’m sharing nine beautiful children’s picture books about nature, all from Quarto Publishers. I hope these nature books will inspire, educate and help your children develop a deep sense of love for nature and the outdoors.
Here’s a quick list of the books I’m reviewing and a link to purchase from Amazon (affiliate link). Additional info and my review of each book are below. I hope you’ll find some new reads, add some of these beautiful books to your shelves at home, give as gifts to a nature-loving kid or add to your library wishlist.
- The Lost Book of Adventure
- North Pole South Pole by Michael Bright
- 50 Reasons to Love Endangered Animals
- National Parks of the USA: Activity Book
- The Secret Life of Trees
- Experiment with Outdoor Science
- Glow in the Dark: Nature’s Light Spectacular
- Let’s Save Our Planet: Forests
- Encyclopedia of Insects
The Lost Book of Adventure: from the notebooks of the Unknown
For the ultimate guide to outdoor adventuring, this book is the best and most beautiful guide to inspire kids to get outside that we’ve seen. It has lovely illustrations, this would make a great coffee table book to pore over and inspire kids to get out and explore. Adults, teenagers and young kids all enjoy this book on different levels. The illustrations are really beautiful and very detailed with plenty of scope for many, many discussions on various adventures and skills you need to survive them. We love this book it’s one we shall treasure, refer to and use for a very long time.
North Pole South Pole by Michael Bright
Beginning with the North Pole, this lovely children’s book introduces the geography and climate of the Arctic. This book is great for helping with homework. It’s also a great resource for kids to research how climate change is affecting the sea and why ice is so important to walruses and polar bears. The best thing about the book is that you flip it over and you arrive in the South Pole… The famous race to reach the Pole in 1911 is retold and readers will discover why the orca is the ultimate polar predator. The icebergs, sub-glacial lakes, and ice chimneys of the Antarctic are brought to life with beautiful illustrations which makes it a lovely read for kids of all ages.
50 Reasons To Love Endangered Animals
50 Reasons To Love Endangered Animals is such a great book for explaining why we need to love and care for endangered animals! The book explains show there are so many reasons to love animals: lions have magnificent shaggy manes, penguins go tobogganing on their tummies, bears wiggle and dance as they scratch, whales sing songs, and elephants can feel sadness. But the book explains that all the animals in this book especially need our love – now more than ever. It’s very accessible for young readers making complicated environmental topics easier to understand. It also gives children a variety of ways they can help protect endangered animals, which gives them a sense of empowerment. I believe this book would be a great classroom reader – it’s a vital resource for younger children, the illustrations are absolutely beautiful, some of the loveliest animal images I’ve come across in children’s literature which really does help to engage even younger children on environmental issues in the book.
National Parks of the USA: Activity Book
I don’t live in the US, but that certainly doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy and appreciate this beautiful book. Many moons ago, I traveled to some of America’s most beautiful National Parks and would have loved this activity book. If you’re planning a road trip to any of the National Parks – this would be such a great keepsake. Take a tour of America’s great outdoors and discover the beauty and diversity of majestic national parks. The book is packed with maps and fascinating facts about the 21 different US National Parks. You can explore Florida’s Everglades, travel down the white water rapids of the Grand Canyon, trek across the deserts of Death Valley, and scale the soaring summits of the Rocky Mountains! This book brings you up close to nature’s greatest adventures.
The Secret Life of Trees
Did you know that trees can talk to each other? Or that the oldest living thing on the planet is a tree? Let the ancient and mysterious Oakheart, the oldest and wisest tree in the forest, lead you through this beautiful guide to trees. Oakheart knows all the trees’ secrets, and he’s going to share them with you! This collection of stories about trees will inspire you to look after the world around you. The stories in this book are so sweet and adorable. They each provide fun and engaging tree/forest facts that inspire curiosity and wonder in kids. They’ll impart a love of nature, and inspire you to look after the world around you. The illustrations are so magical and whimsical. This is a book that we’ll read over and over.
Experiment with Outdoor Science
Are you looking for ways to learn while also enjoying the great outdoors? Look no further! This book is great for the kid that loves science or is always asking “why?” The book is filled with hands-on outdoor science projects and activities for kids will help them explore and understand the world around them. The Experiment with Outdoor Science book shows that science isn’t limited to the classroom – it can be found out in the garden or in the kitchen step-by-step instructions with an emphasis on fun, achievable experiments to give kids hands-on experiences. The science behind each experiment is explained so that kids can understand how the science happens!
Glow in the Dark: Nature’s Light Spectacular
Nature’s Light Spectacular by Kay Flint (with colorful fun drawings by Cornelia Li) is a wonderful book that teaches children to appreciate the wonders of the world by examining one of the many phenomena of lights. This is such an interesting topic for a children’s book and really beautifully done. This book teaches kids (and adults) about lots of different light phenomena that I wasn’t even aware of! Examples include a firework of meteor showers, solar eclipses, double rainbows, super blood moon, and brocken spectre. Have you ever heard or seen any of those? It also discusses volcano lightning, polar lights, and glowworm caves! How amazing is that? It’s a real beauty of a book that you’ll learn a lot from.
Let’s Save Our Planet: Forests
There are lots of research books for kids about forests but this one is special. It is (most obviously) all about forests, the animals who live in forests, the environmental danger of deforestation and different ways in which we can tackle deforestation. It covers how scientists and conservationists are helping to protect forest creatures and tech inventions like robot tree-planters, which help kids become aware of the incredible solutions to deforestation that are being worked on around the world right now! But the best thing about it is how it has a clear list of facts that kids can learn or use for homework help or a project support a clear list of actions of how we can help save the forests. This book is great for the budding naturalist in your family and filled with actionable items that they can start making a difference right now!
Encyclopedia of Insects
If you have kids that love worms, bugs and creepy-crawlies like mine do, then this Encyclopedia of Insects is going to be a perfect read! This book is such a wonderful resource for kids wanting to look up and learn about bugs and insects. It’s packed with hundreds (300, actually) of bugs in fascinating detail written by a natural history expert. It covers the cutest and most beautiful bugs, to the deadliest and most disgusting ones! It’s got a little something for everyone. Plus, it does a really great job of showing how and why bugs and insects are important to the planet and what they do for us humans. It’s educational, informative, and fun!
Raising little naturalists through books
Kids learn to love what they experience, know and understand. Reading books about nature, our planet and the great outdoors is a wonderful way to spark their interest and curiosity about the world around them. Hopefully, that curiosity will lead to a love and appreciation of our planet, and the plants and animals that live on it. These books would be a perfect addition to your outdoor education and will help you raise a kid that loves and appreciates nature. I hope they help you and yours connect to our planet, nature, and the great outdoors this year!
Which book is your favorite?
About the author
Jemma lives in London, England with her husband and kids. Her all-time favorite thing to do is take photos and capture memories of her family. She’s on a mission to ensure parenthood doesn’t rush by so quickly by creating mini family outdoor adventures and hopefully some big adventures too, one day! She’s a mum to four and an English teacher to many. She loves sharing her passion for storytelling, adventures, and nature crafts on her blog and here.
Find more from Jemma in the following locations:
Instagram: @thimbleandtwig
Blog: www.thimbleandtwig.com
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Etsy shop: ThimbleandTwig
RWMC posts: Jemma
