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Top Children's Books On Environment: Teach Kids to Reduce, Reuse & Recycle

Children’s Books on Environmental Sustainability available on Amazon today. Fun stories combined with important environmental messages! Teach your kids to act green and how to protect Mother Nature through the Reduce Reuse Recycle action. 

As an eco-conscious and sustainability-focused family from British Columbia Canada, we love to see that more and more children’s authors focus their attention on bringing awareness about waste and air pollution, climate change, and the need for green action early on. As our own toddler is becoming more and more curious, we’ve done a full survey of Amazon and nearby bookstores to find the latest and greatest children’s books on the environment, sustainability, recycling, green action, climate change, and protecting the planet. Hence, we present to you our TOP SIX pick – based on both: our own and our son’s feedback!

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1, 2, 3 Who is Cleaning The Sea? — by Janina Rossiter

“1, 2, 3, Who's Cleaning the Sea?” is a fun and easy flowing rhymed children’s book that introduces kids to the problem of environmental pollution at a very early age.

Inspired by the beauty and fragility of the oceans, Janina Rossiter fills this children’s book with astonishing artwork and the illustrations, that perfectly convey her deep love for ecology and protecting the environment.

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If you want to change the world, first change yourself. 

One of the best ways to protect our oceans and our planet is to change the culture around environmental sustainability. That is precisely the reason why we, as modern parents and teachers, have to educate our children by making green action a natural part of our own life. 

“The young children I work with are always very open-minded and eager to learn about the environment,” explains the author, “It is important to give them that opportunity without exposing them to upsetting images or stories. 1,2,3, Who's Cleaning the Sea? helps them understand the role we play in ocean pollution and how each one of us can help to make things better.”

Continuing, “My generation has failed; we have filled the seas and oceans with plastic and are now killing thousands of innocent creatures daily, as a result. I hope my book empowers children to question some of the choices my generation made, change them for their generation and start fighting in a way that steadily begins to reverse the trends. It is a huge job, yes – but totally within our reach.“

You’ll need to teach your child how to count sooner or later, right? So why not use a children’s counting book that in addition communicates an important environmental message?

Our Feedback

I’ll start by saying that since we received our copy of this children’s book, my 3yo son Cosmos fell in love with it. He asked to read it to him every day for two weeks straight and have learned the entire verses by heart. 

With the help of this book, we taught our son that the ocean is a home for so many creatures! And it is wrong to come to someone’s home as a guest and leave garbage around for them (sea creatures) to clean-up after you.

So when we went to Hawaii a few months ago and saw giant sea turtles on the beach, our 3yo son was very careful so not a single piece of trash made it to the beach and the ocean waters. I think this is a HUGE WIN!

Similarly, when we went to Cuba and saw the entire beach littered with cigarette butts, Cosmos initiated the “Red Bucket Challenge” – challenging every kid to collect at least a sand bucket worth of litter and dispose of it properly.

We definitely recommend Janina Rossiter’s little fun counting book. In our opinion, this is a perfect “environment starter” book for toddlers and is appropriate for 2- to 6-year-olds. 

What we really like about it, in addition to fun rhymes and fascinating illustrations, Janina leaves kids with actionable steps. This children's book encourages everyone, not just kids, to reduce, reuse and engage in recycling efforts, and a promises that any action, however little, can bring about amazing results

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The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle — by Alison Inches

The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle children's book encourages kids (and parents) to learn about recycling from a new perspective! We absolutely love the way the story is written: as a diary of crude oil soon to be a plastic bottle. 

Alison Inches did an absolutely magnificent job at explaining the full lifecycle of plastic production and recycling process in a way a 3yo toddler can get it! Alison's story about a little plastic bottle is indeed a Big Adventure: from crude oil extraction to refinery plant, to the manufacturing line, to bottling and then a store shelf placement, to home use, to a recycling facility, to going into space!

Combined with hilarious illustrations and diary-notes, the story is both fun and highly educational. This children’s book indeed points out the ecological significance behind each process and product, the resources used to make it and the opportunity to reuse and recycle. 

We would recommend this book for ages 4+ 

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The Adventures of Aluminum Can — by Alison Inches

Another one of Alison Inches’ children’s books on the environment, sustainability, and recycling made it to our list – The Adventures of an Aluminum Can.

This fun diary-like story encourages kids (and parents) to learn about manufacturing and recycling around metals.

Once again, a fantastic job explaining how bauxite rock transforms into aluminum and goes on an adventure to the manufacturing line, to the store shelf, to a display on a bookshelf, to the recycling bin, to a recycling plant, and then to a kids playfield in its new life as a baseball bat!

After reading this children’s book about the aluminum can, and the previous one about the bottle, my toddler started randomly pointing at things at home and asking what those are made of. And you know what? I absolutely love the curiosity Alison’s book has inspired! We keep looking at videos on youtube now to see what is made of what. Even I am learning so many new cool things every day alongside my child. 

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NOT For Me Please, I Choose To Act Green — by Maria Godsey

Not For Me Please, I Choose To Act Green is a children’s book introducing kids to the concept of environmental action. 

It starts with a child Luke noticing the damage that simple day-to-day use trash causes to the environment and the animals on the streets and in the park. The child then decides to Act Green to protect the neighbourhood he loves. The focus is on ditching the single-use plastics, such as plastic straws and plastic bags, on cleaning up after himself and using the appropriate recycling bins for the garbage. 

Using his phrase, ‘Not for me, please!’ Luke leads by example harnessing his inner super-hero and helps protect the environment. The story, quite neatly, introduces little readers to the concept of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and calls for action.

Let's choose to recycle, reduce, and reuse;
and with my strong phrase, there's no way we lose!
Here are some examples to show what I mean,
and how you can join me and begin to act green.

NOT For Me Please, I Choose To Act Green — by Maria Godsey

Each page inspires simple easy steps in addressing the pollution problem, those many little steps combined result in a much bigger positive change. Luke becomes a Champion for the fight against pollution and living a sustainable eco-friendly lifestyle.

In our opinion, this book is appropriate for a bit older kids, I’d say Grade 1 and older. We tried this one with our 3yo Cosmos, and I can tell that although he kinda liked it, the message did not resonate quite well. So we’ll try again when he is a few years older. 

Nevertheless, in the eyes of an eco-conscious and sustainability-focused parent, I find this children’s book to be absolutely fantastic. 

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The Polar Bear’s Home: A Story About Global Warming — by Lara Bergen

The Polar Bear’s Home: A Story About Global Warming children's book is, in our opinion, a very easy introduction to the concept of Climate Change and Global Warming. 

The story takes little readers on an Arctic adventure with a little girl and her father, who have an accidental encounter with a polar bears family. The child witnesses how global warming affects two baby polar bear cubs and their arctic home. Through the father’s explanation within this children's book, we learn about some of the reasons why climate change is happening and adds a few important lessons on what can be done to help slow down global warming.

Our toddler Cosmos liked The Polar Bear’s Home story, as it is about polar bears, but I can tell that he can’t yet grasp the climate change concept. In our opinion, this children’s book will be perfect for a 7+ yo child who is curious about the environment and wants to know more about more complex topics such as global warming. 

The illustrations are beautiful and easy to grasp. I also like the fact that the Little Green Books series that educate children on being eco-friendly are made entirely from recycled materials.

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What a Waste: Trash, Recycling, and Protecting our Planet — by Jess French

What a Waste Trash, Recycling, and Protecting our Planet children’s book is an absolutely amazing resource that covers almost all aspects of the environment, sustainability, resource consumption, recycling, and climate change. 

I like that Jess takes a scientific approach in presenting young sustainability enthusiasts with facts in an easy and illustrative manner. No storyline, no speculation, no judgment. Simple facts, stats, and easy-to-grasp illustrations. 

Some of the facts are outright shocking! For example: Did you know that every single plastic toothbrush ever made still exists? Or that there's a floating mass of garbage twice the size of Texas drifting around the Pacific Ocean?

At the same time, the author highlights the positives and focuses her children’s book environmental message on inspiring young readers to do more. It talks about some international plans already in motion to clean our oceans, how people, countries, and organizations are implementing strategies that are having a positive impact, and how through various recycling programs and advancements in technology our waste can be turned into something useful. 

Definitely for older kids and young adults, this book literally gives you everything you need to know about what we're doing to our environment, good and bad, from pollution and litter to renewable energy and plastic recycling. Even the topic of Space Waste is covered!

It is only an introduction, of course, the young environmentalists are inspired to learn more, and are given the tools and references to resources. If I were a middle or high school student, passionate about the environment and determined to bring about positive change – I would have absolutely loved to get this children’s book for Christmas or as my Birthday gift!

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Where to Buy Children's Books on the Environment, Sustainability, Recycling, and Climate Change?

The books we've reviewed are available on Amazon today – Links below. Some of these you may be able to find at your local bookstore as well.

More children's books on the Environment, Sustainability, Recycling, Green Action, Climate Change and How the World Works:

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VIDEO: Best Children's Books about The Environment

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Concluding Notes

It’s important to teach your children about the environment at an early age because the fight against waste and air pollution, experiencing the effects of climate change, and thinking about sustainability every day, as we now know, will likely become their normal. 

The environmental habits they learn, the eco-conscious consumer choices they make, and the curiosity around sustainability developed in early age will likely to give them more time and tools to adjust to upcoming changes. 

With introducing the concepts, strategies and modern technologies around recycling, waste reduction, climate change, and sustainability, we inspire the next generation of educated eco-smart future leaders. 

Talk to your kids, introduce children’s books on the environment, watch youtube videos together, take them outdoors (while we still have the Outdoors…). Teach your little ones to love and appreciate Mother Nature and take care of it both: when you travel and in day-to-day life.

Children's books provide a great starting point – we believe that more and more parents and teachers should focus on topics of environment, sustainability, recycling, and climate change in their educational effort early on.

You do not have to be an environmental activist to start. You do not need to be perfectly eco-friendly. No one needs to be perfect. However, each small change, each sustainable action, each eco-friendly choice makes an impact. It’s one fewer plastic bags floating in our ocean, one fewer plastic wrap in a landfill, ditching single-use plastics in favour of reusable items, packing your kid’s lunch in paper bags, bringing your own coffee mug to Starbucks and saying NO to single-use cups. 

Every little action counts.

More on the topic of Sustainability Practices, Green Activities, and Eco Lifestyle:
Smart Eco-Friendly Family Activities: Teach Kids Sustainability Practices

Are you an eco-conscious sustainability-oriented parent, grandparent, or teacher? Do you know of and can you recommend any other children's books on the environment, sustainability, recycling, and climate change? Or are you in need of parent resources? Message us or comment below!

Are you a children's book author, writing on topics of the environment, sustainability, recycling, and climate change, and who'd like to be featured on our blog? Contact us, we'll be happy to help!

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Check Out NEXT:

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Cheerfully yours,

Alexandra, Alex & Cosmos

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