The Environment and Global Warming

The state of the earth’s environment is of increasing concern. Daily news reports describe the effects of global warming. Fortunately, a wide variety of environmental literature is available for curious kids. From informative books about climate change to fun magazines about wildlife, the following list will keep kids entertained during the hot summer months.

Nonfiction

Barr, Gary
Climate change: Is the World in Danger? 2007.
Explores the scientific facts about climate change and the debates over the cause.
[Education S Collection: S.551.6 B271c]

Burns, Loree Griffin
Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion. 2007.
Describes the work of a man who tracks trash as it travels great distances by way of ocean currents.
[Education S Collection: Q.S.551.462 B937t]

Cone, Molly
Come Back, Salmon. 1992.
Describes the efforts of the Jackson Elementary School in Everett, Washington, to clean up a nearby stream, stock it with salmon, and preserve it as an unpolluted place where the salmon could return to spawn.
[Education Storage: S. 639.3755 C756C]

Gore, Albert
An Inconvenient Truth: the Crisis of Global Warming. 2007.
In this juvenile companion to the acclaimed documentary, Gore documents the steeply rising carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere, and links that to accelerating changes in temperature and precipitation patterns worldwide. Using easy-to-grasp graphics and revealing before-and-after photos, he shows how glaciers and ice shelves are disappearing all over the globe with alarming speed, pointing to profound climate changes and increased danger from rising sea levels in the near future.
[Education S Collection: S.363.73874 G66a]

Maze, Stephanie
I Want To Be an Environmentalist. 2000.
Describes career opportunities within the field of environmentalism and suggests ways to pursue such a career.
[Education S Collection: S.363.70023 M456i]

Pringle, Laurence P.
The Environmental Movement: From Its Roots to the Challenges of a New Century. 2000.
Chronicles the history, key players, and future challenges of the environmental movement.
[Education S Collection: S.363.7052509 P936e]

Rockwell, Anne
Why Are the Ice Caps Melting?: the Dangers of Global Warming. 2006.
Tells about the greenhouse effect, recycling, and what you can do to help fight global warming.
[Center for Children’s Books: Q.S. 363.738 R593w]

Taylor, Barbara
How to Save the Planet. 2001.
Discusses such environmental concerns as depletion of the ozone layer, global warming, air and water pollution, recycling, wildlife conservation, and more.
[Education S-Collection: S.363.7 T212h]

Fiction

Cherry, Lynne
The Great Kapok Tree: a Tale of the Amazon Rainforest. 1990.
The many different animals that live in a great kapok tree in the Brazilian rainforest try to convince a man with an ax of the importance of not cutting down their home.
[Education S-Collection: Q.SE. C424G]

Child, Lauren
What Planet are You From Clarice Bean? 2002.
When Clarice has to do a school project on the environment, she and her family become eco-warriors in an attempt to save a tree on their street.
[Education S-Collection: S.C437w]

Cooper, Susan
Green Boy. 2002.
Twelve-year-old Trey and his seven-year-old brother Lou, who does not speak, cross the barrier between two worlds, that of their island in the Bahamas, and a land called Pangaia, and play a mysterious role in restoring the natural environment in both places.
[Education Storage: S.C787gre]

George, Jean Craighead
Case of the Missing Cutthroats: an Ecological Mystery. 1996.
After Spinner Shafter catches a cutthroat trout in the Snake River, she and her cousin Alligator search the nearby mountains to determine where the endangered fish came from and how it survived.
[Education Storage: S. G292CA]

Hiaasen, Carl
Flush. 2005.
With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.
[Center for Children’s Books: S. H52f]

Van Allsburg, Chris
Just a Dream. 1990.
When he has a dream about a future Earth devastated by pollution, Walter begins to understand the importance of taking care of the environment.
[Education S-Collection: Q.S. V263J]

Magazines

Envirokids
Published by the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa, this magazine for children promotes environmental awareness. Each issue is organized around a theme and includes brightly illustrated articles, activities, puzzles and more.
[Education S-Collection non-circulating: Q.S. 333.7205 ENVI]

Ranger Rick
Published by the National Wildlife Foundation for children ages 7 and up, this magazine features colorful photos, funny drawings, and exciting stories about wildlife and nature.
[Education S-Collection non-circulating: S.505 RAR1]

On the Web

The EPA Climate Change Kids Site Includes easy to understand definitions and background on climate change as well as games.

The Lorax’s Save the Trees Game Based on the classic Dr. Seuss book, this simple game requires players to catch the truffula seeds and replant the forest.


National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Kids’ Pages
Includes games, fact sheets, coloring pages, stories, puzzles, and quotations.