What Are You Reading This Earth Day?: 11 Delightful Children’s Books On Nature And Environment
Here’s a list of books that are must-haves on your children’s bookshelves. And we wouldn’t be surprised if you ended up borrowing them to read as well.
The Honey Hunter
Karthika Naïr and Joëlle Jolivet / Young Zubaan
This marvellous book done in pop colours takes you to the Sundarbans, introducing children to mangroves, the honey hunters, and the tiger. Karthika Naïr’s prose is eloquent, while Joëlle Jolivet’s illustrations will make you want to linger over each lavishly produced page.
12 Likes, 6 Comments - BAM! Books (@bam_books) on Instagram: "An absolute favourite. Take a journey to the Sunderban, the forest of beauty, in a compelling,..."
Baaware Beej
Vishakha Chanchani / Tulika Books
Tree babies, as a friend calls seeds, are magical things. And if there was a book that would make you love Hindi and prose, it's Baawre Beej (roughly translates to wild and mad seeds). This picture book by Vishaka Chanchani is about farmer Beeju Bhaiya and talks about seeds, earth and soil. The tempo of the prose makes it a perfect read aloud story - at the end of which you will be giddy with joy and itching to go and plant some seeds. Talking of seeds, also check out Deepa Balsavar’s The Seed (Tulika Books), a wonderful bilingual book which will make the young ones toddle off to garden.
66 Likes, 11 Comments - BAM! Books (@bam_books) on Instagram: "If there was a book that would make you love Hindi and prose, it's Baawre Beej (roughly translates..."
Nature and Environment STEM Books
Various / Pratham Books StoryWeaver
For the last couple of years, the Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver platform has been creating STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math – books. I got the opportunity to edit a set of books on nature and environment for them. There are books on a range of subjects, including climate change, littering, green heroes, environment and migration, seeds, seasonal foods, and canopy forests. Many of these books are also available in multiple languages! You can read about them here.
24 Likes, 6 Comments - BAM! Books (@bam_books) on Instagram: "This Earth Day, head to @pbstoryweaver for some fabulous green stories. Canopy forests, seed..."
When I grow up I want to be a Tiger
Prerna Singh Bindra and Maya Ramaswamy / Speaking Tiger
Meet T-Cubs, a darling little tiger cub who does what tiger cubs do. He plays, he frolics, and he learns to hunt alongside his mother. All is well in his forest, until one day his Ma disappears. Suddenly the threats that face T-Cub become alarmingly real. Will T-Cub get to grow up to be a tiger? Maya Ramaswamy’s gorgeous illustrations plunge you into the marvellous forests of India. And it’s a joy to learn about the tiger’s characteristics through Prerna Singh Bindra’s writings.
73 Likes, 9 Comments - BAM! Books (@bam_books) on Instagram: "Here's a book that wants to show its stripes for the tiger. Gorgeously illustrated by Maya..."
Birds from my Window and the Antics they get up to
Ranjit Lal / Scholastic
When it comes to nature writing for children, Ranjit Lal’s books are a wonderful gateway into that world. He writes with his characteristic dry wit and astute understanding of animals. In Birds from My Window, he writes about the everyday feathered friends he observes – from the little brown sparrow to the jungle babblers. Budding ornithologists will love this book. Also, check out The Tigers of Taboo Valley (Red Turtle) by Lal. It’s the story of a Rana Shaan-Bahadur, the alpha-male tiger of Sher-Kila National Park, who finds himself lumped with the care of four tiger cubs. It’s a hilarious story with some hard truths about the perils our forests face today.
43 Likes, 6 Comments - BAM! Books (@bam_books) on Instagram: "What are you doing for the long weekend? We're hoping to get out of the city and into the wild ......"
The Sea in a Bucket
Deepa Balsavar and Priti Rajwade / Eklavya
In just ten pages, The Sea in a Bucket tells the story of the water cycle. Sonu is heading to the community tap to fill up a bucket of water, but he ends up learning about its journey from the sea to his bucket. Deepa Balsavar's illustrations make for a lovely pullout poster at the end of the book with the entire ecosystem on it.
37 Likes, 2 Comments - BAM! Books (@bam_books) on Instagram: "In ten pages, The Sea in a Bucket tells the story of the water cycle. Sonu is heading to the..."
Trash! On Ragpicker Children and Recycling
Gita Wolf, Anushka Ravishankar and Orijit Sen / Tara Books
In the note to parents and educators, the authors explain that the book “evolved from a series of workshops” that were conducted with rag picker children. “We decided to write this book on the complex issues of child labour and the environment because we believe that problematic themes have a place in children’s literature. Books can deal openly and honestly with the harsher realities of life, which children see around them every day”. Trash! tells the story of Velu, who runs away from his home and comes to Chennai, a city in South India. Here he is befriended by Jaya, a ragpicker. The book is peppered with exercises such as Houses from Trash – where readers have to observe a slum settlement and think “what some people throw away as waste is valuable to others”. They then also have to identify the waste that often goes into the making of slums.
16 Likes, 1 Comments - BAM! Books (@bam_books) on Instagram: "On #InternationalDayAgainstChildLabour - why not read Trash! from @tara_books. Shedding light on..."
Our Toxic World: A guide to hazardous substances in our everyday lives
Aniruddha Sen Gupta and Priya Kurian / Sage Publications and Toxics Link.
Our Toxic World is a graphic novel co-published by Delhi-based NGO Toxic Link. The book is divided into 12 parts that look at Construction, Automobile pollution, Environmental laws, Industrial pollution, chemicals, Electronic waste, Plastics, Heavy metals, Food, Household waste, Recycling, and Festivals.
The story is told through the eyes of a family and in the form of a graphic novel. The comic form works very well, making a complex subject easy to understand and accept. Further, panel pages alternate with fact sheets that talk about hazardous substances and also offer solutions for non-toxic everyday products.
26 Likes, 3 Comments - BAM! Books (@bam_books) on Instagram: "Aniruddha Sen Gupta teams up with Priya Kurian to create this graphic novel about a family and the..."
Alphabet Books
Various
You are never too old for alphabet books, especially for fun ones like these books. Prabha Mallya looks at collective nouns in The Alphabet of Animals and Birds (Red Turtle). Learn about a pride of lions as well that a group of owls is called a parliament! There’s also the wonderful Book of Beasts (Duckbill) by M Krishnan, with some beautiful illustrations by one of the country's most beloved naturalists.
23 Likes, 6 Comments - BAM! Books (@bam_books) on Instagram: "You are never too old for alphabet books, especially for fun ones like these books. Prabha Mallya..."
The Six Spellmakers of Dorabji Street
Shabnam Minwalla / Hachette India.
Journalist Shabnam Minwalla’s charming book is based in Mumbai. Nivi and Nikhil move to the city with their parents and quickly befriend other children who live in Cosy Castle on Dorabji Street. However, Nivi and her new best friend Sarita find that their lovely hideout, a gigantic tree in the community garden, is going to be felled by two evil neighbours. Using their wit and with a little bit of magic, they set about foiling their plans and saving their beloved tree.
72 Likes, 6 Comments - BAM! Books (@bam_books) on Instagram: "For years, we read Shabnam Minwalla's byline as a journalist. We now read her as a fabulous writer..."
Farmer Falgu series
Chitra Soundar and Kanika Nair / Karadi Tales
If you’re looking for a book where a farmer is the protagonist, then turn to Chitra Soundar’s Farmer Falgu series. In Farmer Falgu Goes to the Market, the farmer must get his produce to the market. Off he goes on his cart, but the journey is filled with lots of disasters! Will he get to the market in time? In Farmer Falgu Takes a Trip, the farmer takes a holiday from his farm and heads off on his cart. Does he find the solace he wants? Farmer Falgu Goes Kite Flying is also part of the series.
All images courtesy BAM! Books except where mentioned.
When Bijal is not reading Harry Potter, she can be found traipsing around the jungles of India or working as a consultant editor at Pratham Books. Bijal has a Masters in Environment Security and Peace and is the author of two children's book, So You Want to Know About the Environment and What's Neema Eating Today. She is the co-founder of BAM! Books, an Instagram-led project on children's literature. You can find her at bijalv.com.
