“All birds live brightly in our imagination, connecting us to the natural world, opening up all kinds of creativity. Is this connection really diminishing to the point of no return? I refuse to believe it.”
by Amy Allgeyer
“I nod, but my mind’s fixed on something else—something abnormal in the valley. Something that might be causing all those health problems. And that something is bright orange.”
Recommended audience: Ages 14+
Year Published: 2016
Continental Setting: North America, United States
“For thousands of years, our clan has protected the island’s ecosystem.”
“We can’t eat money or drink oil. One day I will be an ancestor and I want my descendants to know I used my voice so they can have a future.”
Recommended audience: Ages 14+, Ages 8-13
Year Published: 2023
Continental Setting: Across the World
“Used to be no one much knew or cared where our water came from. It was just there. But when the Central Valley started to dry up and the price of produce skyrocketed, people started to pay attention”
Recommended audience: Ages 14+
Year Published: 2018
Continental Setting: North America, United States
“You can call me Planet Awesome.”
Recommended audience: Ages 4-7
Year Published: 2017
Continental Setting: Across the World
by Ben Okri
“You humans seem to think that we trees are just decoration. But we are beings like you. We feel. We respond to love and attention. You should see how we glow when we are loved.”
“The new century will surely bring the miracle we need, the islanders tell each other. Earth may have abandoned others to its swallowing seas…but, they claim, that could never happen to us.”
“Will believed everyone, everywhere, had a right to good food. But how could Will farm in the middle of pavement and parking lots?”
Recommended audience: Ages 4-7, Ages 8-13
Year Published: 2013
Continental Setting: North America, United States
“It pushes through cracks and crannies and steals back forgotten places.”
Recommended audience: Ages 4-7
Year Published: 2016
Continental Setting: Unspecified
“I can’t resolve or invent the past. / I need a way to change the future.”
Recommended audience: Ages 8-13
Year Published: 2017
Continental Setting: Cuba, North America
“Mayor Mayonnaise knew he had a mess on his hands”
Recommended audience: Ages 0-3, Ages 4-7
Year Published: 2022
Continental Setting: Unspecified
“That’s no blizzard. That’s my sister.”
“Our lands and people, now connected by love.”
by Annie Bach
“The farm is full of sleepyheads. Let’s help our friends get out of bed.”
Recommended audience: Ages 0-3
Year Published: 2018
Continental Setting: Unspecified
by Lauren James
“It was impossible not to care for the plants around her when she could feel their drowsy, contented vibrations as they soaked up the sunlight and fresh rainwater. In a best-case scenario, Dad would understand when she explained that she needed to take responsibility for their pollution.”
Recommended audience: Ages 14+
Year Published: 2021
Continental Setting: North America, United States
by Pari Thomson
“Daisy felt all around her the unmistakeable atmosphere of Mallowmarsh on the breeze: of cool water and silver birches and plum trees, the tang of rich and concentrated green magic that had built up in one place for centuries. She was almost dizzy with it. How could she have not sensed it before?”
by Zoë Tucker
“And no one told them to stop because everyone was scared of them”
“I’m a baby loggerhead. Please help me. / Dim your lights so I can swim in the sea.”
Recommended audience: Ages 8-13
Year Published: 2017
Continental Setting: Australia, South America
“On our beautiful planet, some places need healing. Would you like to go on a healing adventure?”
Recommended audience: Ages 0-3, Ages 4-7
Year Published: 2018
Continental Setting: Across the World
“I bend toward the water and look closer. The start of a dead zone? Was that boy trying to scare us, like Maya said? Or does he really know what’s happening? I spot another dead fish, floating on its side. There are clumps of green on its silver scales, more than the last one had. I walk away from the reeds and kneel by a clearer part of the water. ‘Renn? Everything okay?’ There’s a pause, then: ‘I’ve been better’. ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘Hard to explain.’”
Recommended audience: Ages 8-13
Year Published: 2020
Continental Setting: North America, United States
by Joyce Sidman
“Earth, we know you can’t answer all our questions in words. You answer in other ways.”
Recommended audience: Ages 14+, Ages 4-7, Ages 8-13
Year Published: 2021
Continental Setting: Across the World
“It’s not about the distant hope of creating a new world. It’s about preserving the one we have.”
Recommended audience: Ages 14+
Year Published: 2022
Continental Setting: North America
“To serve a purpose greater than yourself. That is the lesson you must learn.”
Recommended audience: Ages 14+
Year Published: 2017
Continental Setting: North America
“We will put the speck on Mount Nool before the end of this decade.”
Recommended audience: Ages 4-7, Ages 8-13
Year Published: 2008
Continental Setting: Unspecified
by Gerda Muller
“Before a fruit can grow, there has to be a flower”
“But how can Peony leave her beloved sister, grandfather, best friend Applejoy, and the orchard behind? And just for money? Don’t Ma know what’s important anyway?”
“Movements make a difference. You can be the friction, the resistance that is needed to slow down the machine that is setting the world on fire”
Recommended audience: Ages 14+, Ages 8-13
Year Published: 2021
Continental Setting: Across the World
by Jordan Scott
“I wake up each morning with the sounds of words all around me. And I can’t say them all.”
Recommended audience: Ages 14+, Ages 4-7, Ages 8-13
Year Published: 2020
Continental Setting: Unspecified
Earth is in a state of climate emergency. Our mission is to promote climate literacy as a means to transition to an ecological civilization. We offer you the resources to teach about climate change with literature, film, and other media for young people.
Climate Lit is an initiative of the Center for Climate Literacy at the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development.
