Earth Day Every Day!

Environmental fiction & nonfiction for grades K-12

Updated April 30, 2025
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Can I recycle this? : a guide to better recycling and how to reduce single-use plastics
Romer, Jennie
Paper Book
"If you've ever been perplexed by the byzantine rules of recycling, you're not alone...you'll want to read Can I Recycle This?... An extensive look at what you can and cannot chuck into your blue bin." --The Washington Post The first illustrated guidebook that...
Climate action : what happened and what we can do
Simon, Seymour
Paper Book
Meet the young activists who are using their voices and minds to fight climate change. Did you know that the past five years have been the hottest ever recorded Or that over seven million people participated in the global Climate Strike We're facing a very real...
Dear Earth ... from your friends in room 5
Dealey, Erin
Paper Book
"A well-thought-out presentation of an important environmental message." --Kirkus When the kids in Room 5 write to Earth asking what they can do to help save our planet, they are delighted to get a letter back. This beautiful picture book is a celebration of every child's...
Dirty air
Lawrence, Ellen
Paper Book
How clean is the air we breathe? What gases do cars and factories produce? Is it true that gases, dust, and other types of pollution in the air can make us ill? What is acid rain, and why does it hurt animals and plants? Can switching off a light and taking the bus instead of riding in the car...
Earth Day
Ferguson, Melissa
Paper Book
Earth Day celebrates our beautiful planet and calls us to act on its behalf. Some people spend the day planting flowers or trees. Others organize neighborhood clean-ups, go on nature walks, or make recycled crafts. Readers will discover how a shared holiday can have multiple traditions and be...
Eyes wide open : going behind the environmental headlines
Fleischman, Paul
Paper Book
Paul Fleischman offers teens an environmental wake-up call and a tool kit for decoding the barrage of conflicting information confronting them. We're living in an Ah-Ha moment. Take 250 years of human ingenuity. Add abundant fossil fuels. The result: a population and lifestyle...
Fly Guy presents : garbage & recycling
Arnold, Tedd
Paper Book
Fly Guy is buzzing over to a landfill to learn more about garbage and recycling!Fly Guy and Buzz visit a landfill to discover where their garbage goes. They learn all about garbage trucks, trash sorting, bacteria, and how landfills can be more environmentally friendly. They also visit a recycling...
Heroes of the environment : true stories of people who are helping to protect our planet
Rohmer, Harriet.
Paper Book
This inspiring book presents the true stories of 12 people from across North America who have done great things for the environment. Heroes include a teenage girl who figured out how to remove an industrial pollutant from the Ohio River, a Mexican superstar wrestler who works to protect turtles and...
How to change everything : the young human's guide to protecting the planet and each other
Klein, Naomi
Paper Book
"[A] uniquely inclusive perspective that will inspire conviction, passion, and action." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) An empowering, engaging young readers guide to understanding and battling climate change from the expert and bestselling author of This Changes...
Luna and me : the true story of a girl who lived in a tree to save a forest
Kostecki-Shaw, Jenny Sue
Paper Book
Once there was a redwood tree--one of the world's largest and tallest trees, and one of the oldest. And once, born nearly a thousand years after the tree first took root, there was a girl named Julia, who was called Butterfly. When exploring her beloved forest, Butterfly wandered...
Mario y el agujero en el cielo : cómo un químico salvó nuestro planeta
Rusch, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Una historia real sobre un cient#65533;fico contempor#65533;neo que salv#65533; la capa de ozono y el planeta, evitando un desastre en el medioambiente. Spanish translation of the true story of how a contemporary scientist saved the ozone and the planet from environmental disaster.<...
Mario y el agujero en el cielo : co?mo un qui?mico salvo? nuestro planeta
Rusch, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Mexican American Mario Molina is a modern-day hero who helped solve the ozone crisis of the 1980s. Growing up in Mexico City, Mario was a curious boy who studied hidden worlds through a microscope. As a young man in California, he discovered that CFCs, used in millions of refrigerators and spray...
MAYBE YOU MIGHT
Foxell, Imogen/ Cunha, Anna (ILT)
Paper Book
They said I couldn't change the world; it wasn't worth the fight. But in my head, a small voice said...maybe you might. A young girl makes a choice to plant a seed by a long dead riverbed. Little does she know that from this single, small act, a vibrant ecosystem will...
Project Earth
Kim, Carol
Paper Book
Jina is learning about climate change for a class project. What she discovers leads her to making plans to reduce energy use around her house. Her plans run into a few snags, and she becomes frustrated about whether she's doing enough. With the help of her understanding parents and teacher along...
Rainbow weaver = Tejedora del arcoíris
Marshall, Linda Elovitz
Paper Book
Bilingual English/Spanish. A young Mayan girl isn't allowed to use her mother's thread to weave, so with a little ingenuity she discovers how to repurpose plastic bags to create colorful weavings. Based on an actual recycling movement in Guatemala. Ixchel wants to follow in the long...
Stand up! Speak up! : a story inspired by the Climate Change Revolution
Joyner, Andrew (Illustrator)
Paper Book
Awarded as a 2021 Malka Penn Award Honor Book, here is a timely picture book about a young girl's mission to inspire others to help the planet. The meaningful message of climate change activism is perfect for Earth Day and every day! Celebrate young climate change activists in...
Sydney & Simon : go green!
Reynolds, Paul A.
Paper Book
STEAM problem-solvers and twin mice Sydney and Simon learn about the dangers of pollution-and the power of recycling-in this illustrated chapter book for young readers Last we saw them, Sydney & Simon used science, technology, engineering, arts, and math skills to save wilting...
Trash revolution : breaking the waste cycle
Fyvie, Erica
Paper Book
All the stuff that surrounds us has a life cycle: materials are harvested, the stuff is made and distributed, it's consumed and then it gets trashed or recycled. Using the typical contents of a child's school backpack (defined as water, food, clothing, paper, plastic, metals, electronics), this book...
WONDERFULLY WILD: REWILDING A SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY
Stremer, Jessica
Paper Book
A classroom of children embarks on a quest to grow new trees from the clippings of a fallen willow tree and to rewild their schoolyard in this uplifting picture book "rich with information and heart" (School Library Journal, starred review) loosely based on a true story. ...
Yasmin the recycler
Faruqi, Saadia
Paper Book
Yasmin is thrilled about her school's new recycling program. But getting her friends to pitch in is no easy task! Will some creative thinking get Yasmin's friends to be good recyclers?

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