Books about Trees

• While a worker rests from chopping down a huge kapok tree in the Amazon rain forest, he falls asleep. He dream about being visited by the creatures of he forest and each one shares the trees value. It is a home and source of food for animals. Its roots hold the soil in place, and its leaves give off oxygen. Lynn Cherry’s story introduces young children to the richness, complexity, and fragility of a threatened habitat.

• Award: Notable Children’s Book in the Field of Social Science

• The powerful song of an ancient Douglas fir celebrates the age-old song of life in Pacific Rain Forest, revealing the interconnectedness of all things.

• This stunningly illustrated book, by Dana Lyons sounds an urgent call to preserve our fragile environment, reminding each of us that a hope for a brighter future lies in our own hands.

Author or Activist?Or BOTH!

Dana Lyons Web Sitewww.cowswithguns.com

Lynn Cherry’s Web Sitehttp://www.lynnecherry.com/

• Song of the Water Boatman is a unique blend of whimsy, science, poetry, and hand-colored woodcuts. This collection invites us to take a closer look at our hidden ponds and wetlands.

• Author Joyce Sidman lives in Wayzata, MN and teaches as a writer-in-residence.

• Awards: Caldecott Honor Book

Prose• A wise woman rich with life

experience, tells her story to nieces and nephews leaving them with a very important piece of wisdom.

• Leave the earth more beautiful than when you came.

• Written by Barbara Cooney

• Brain finds a salamander in the woods and brings it home. His mother asks him important questions about how he is going to care for it.

• His responses turn his room into the very forest from which the salamander came from.

• This is a sensitive and caring story by Anna Mazer, about how wild animals should really be cared for out in the wild.

• Follow the planets most powerful resource, water. In poetic literature takes the reader through the water cycle in a happy marriage of art and science. Written by Thomas Locker

• Awards: An NCTC Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Language Arts and an NSTS-CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book

• The Smallest of natures wonders are treated with reverence, sensitivity, and gentle humor in this collections of haiku poems by writer Jane Yolen. Photographs by Jason Stemple.

• Awards: National Outdoor Book Award (Children’s category).

Field Guides• TAKE-ALONG GUIDE TO TRACKS,

SCATS AND SIGNS. • Introduces children ages 6-12 to

"reading" who lives in a given environment by looking for clues. Divided into four sections: forest, field, pond, and track preservation.

• Written by Leslie Dendy

• About 18,000 different kids of wildflowers splash the soggy wetlands, shady forests, and windy prairies of Minnesota.

• In Minnesota Wildflowers you will find even the most common wild flowers and interesting stories about them.

• Text by Beverly Magley, Illustrations by DD Dowden

• So begins a remarkable letter from the Mother Earth asking for help from children everywhere.

• Written by Schim Schimmel to accompany his art work and emphasize his concern for the Earth.

THE Original Classic

• The Lorax is a children's story, written by Dr. Seuss and first published in 1971. The tale chronicles the plight of the environment and the Lorax (a "mossy, bossy" man-like creature), who speaks for the trees against the greedy Once-ler. As in most of Dr. Seuss' works, most of the creatures mentioned are made-up for the book.

• The book is commonly recognized as a fable concerning industrialized society, using the literary element of personification to give life to industry as the Once-ler (whose face is never shown in all of the story's illustrations) and to the environment as the Lorax.

Learning to Listen!

• Go on a “listening walk” with your students and help them learn how to tune in to and listen to the world around them.

• Written by ALIKI

Credits

• The Development of a Research Guide That Will Integrate Children’s Literature with the Minnesota Department of Education’s Environmental Education Learner. Swanson, Andrea E., University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. 1999.

• E for Environment An Annotated Bibliography of Children’s Books with Environmental Themes. Sinclair, Patti, K. R.R. Bowker, 1992.