Posted on:
The significance of Earth Day grows each year as our global climate crisis worsens. Recent popularity of Netflix documentaries David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet, Down to Earth with Zac Efron, and Seaspiracy have prompted an increasing interest in plant-based foods and sustainability. Millions of young people are striking, marching, and organizing alongside climate activists like Greta Thunberg and Xiuhtezcatl Martinez. Here are some titles for all ages to read to celebrate our planet and inspire action to protect it.
Youth Titles
- Climate Action: What Happened and What We Can Do by Seymour Simon
- Climate Emergency Atlas by writer and researcher Dan Hooke
- Earth Day, Birthday! by Maureen Wright; illustrated by Violet Kim
- Green City: How One Community Survived a Tornado and Rebuilt for a Sustainable Future by Allan Drummond
- Greta Thunberg: Climate Crisis Activist by Matt Doeden
- Hello, Earth! : Poems to Our Planet by Joyce Sidman; illustrated by Miren Asiain Lora
- The Last Straw: Kids vs. Plastics by Susan Hood; illustrated by Christiane Engel
- My Friend Earth by Patricia MacLachlan; illustrated by Francesca Sanna
- The Ocean in Your Bathtub by Seth Fishman; illustrated by Isabel Greenberg
- Old Enough to Save the Planet by Loll Kirby; illustrated by Adelina Lirius
- One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul; illustrations by Elizabeth Zunon
- Our House is on Fire: Greta Thunberg's Call to Save the Planet by Jeanette Winter
- Plastic: Past, Present, and Future by Eun-Ju Kim; illustrated by Ji-Won Lee
- Recycle and Remake, edited by Hélène Hilton
- Spring After Spring: How Rachel Carson Inspired the Environmental Movement by Stephanie Roth Sission
- Stand Up! Speak Up!: A Story Inspired by the Climate Change Revolution by Andrew Joyner
- What A Waste by Jess French
- Zonia’s Rain Forest by Juana Martinez-Neal
Teen Titles
- 47 Things You Can Do for the Environment by Lexi Petronis
- Can Your Outfit Change the World? by Erinne Paisley
- No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg
- No Planet B: A Teen Vogue Guide to Climate Justice edited by Lucy Diavolo
- Steal This Country: A Handbook for Resistance, Persistence, and Fixing Almost Anything by Alexandra Styron
- We Rise: The Earth Guardians Guide to Building a Movement That Restores the Planet by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez with Justin Spizman
- Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It
Adult Nonfiction Titles
- The (Almost) Zero Waste Guide: 100+ Tips for Reducing Your Waste Without Changing Your Life by Melanie Mannarino
- Billion Dollar Burger: Inside Big Tech’s Race for the Future of Food by Chase Purdy
- Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future by Mary Robinson with Caitriona Palmer
- Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change by George Marshall
- Enviromedics: The Impact of Climate Change on Human Health by Jay Lemery and Paul Auerbach
- Food is the Solution: What to Eat to Save the World: 80+ Recipes for a Greener Planet and a Healthier You by Matthew Prescott
- The Fragile Earth: Writing from the New Yorker on Climate Change
- The Future Earth: A Radical Vision for What's Possible in the Age of Warming by Eric Holthaus
- Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash by Edward Humes
- How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates
- How to Change Minds About Our Changing Climate: Let Science Do the Talking the Next Time Someone Tries to Tell You the Climate Isn't Changing; Global Warming is Actually a Good Thing; Climate Change is Natural, Not Man-made; and Other Arguments It's Time to End for Good by Seth B. Darling and Douglas L. Sisterson
- How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos by David Pogue
- The Human Planet: Earth at the Dawn of the Anthropocene by George Steinmetz; text by Andrew Revkin
- Inconspicuous Consumption: the Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have by Tatiana Schlossberg
- Living Without Plastic: More Than 100 Easy Swaps for Home, Travel, Dining, Holidays, and Beyond by Brigette Allen and Christine Wong
- The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Climate by Michael E. Mann
- On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal by Naomi Klein
- Resetting the Table: Straight Talk About the Food We Grow and Eat by Robert Paarlberg
- The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here by Hope Jahren
- This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. Climate by Naomi Klein
- Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert
- The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells
- We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer
- What Can I Do? My Path from Climate Despair to Action by Jane Fonda
Further reading from our online resources: