Whether you’re looking for books to introduce toddlers to the beauty of nature or novels that inspire older kids to appreciate gardens, this list has something for every age group. Some of these books are educational, while others weave gardens into their stories in creative and inspiring ways.
Board Books & Picture Books
Through brilliant, textured cut paper collages, the story follows the progress of a mother and daughter in their backyard as they plant bulbs, seeds, and seedlings and nurture their growth into flowers. Bold, spare text and dazzling illustrations will inspire readers to take a closer look at the natural world and maybe even start a garden of their own.
Celebrate Earth Day, spring, and the basics of gardening while improving color recognition with Lois Ehlert's Planting a Rainbow!
Explore the secret realm beneath the dirt that brings the world of nature to life: Follow a young girl and her grandmother on a journey through the year planning, planting, and harvesting their garden—and learn about what's happening in the dirt to help make it all happen.
Join the tiny seed on an adventure as it becomes a giant flower!
In this Lola Reads picture book, Lola learns how to plant a flower garden in this simple and sweet story about gardening and patience.
After Lola reads a book of garden poems, she wants to plant some flowers. She gets books from the library and chooses her plants. Then Lola and her mommy buy the seeds, make the garden, and mark the rows. Lola finds it hard to wait, but at last the flowers bloom. Now it's time for a party with her friends!
The Lola Reads series celebrates family time and togetherness through reading, special activities, and new adventures.
Award-winning artist Sylvia Long and author Dianna Hutts Aston have teamed up again to create this gorgeous and informative introduction to seeds. Poetic in voice and elegant in design, the book introduces children to a fascinating array of seed and plant facts, making it a guide that is equally at home being read on a parent's lap as in a classroom reading circle.
Springtime is here, and Zinnia can’t wait to plant her seeds and watch them grow. She carefully takes care of her garden, watering her plants, weeding, and waiting patiently for something to sprout. And soon enough, the first seedlings appear! With art just as colorful as a garden in bloom, young readers will enjoy watching Zinnia’s beautiful garden grow, and may even be inspired to start one of their own.
When a little boy plants a carrot seed, everyone tells him it won't grow. But when you are very young, there are some things that you just know, and the little boy knows that one day a carrot will come up. So he waters his seed, and pulls the weeds, and he waits...
This beloved classic celebrates patience, determination, and believing in yourself. First published in 1945 and never out of print, the timeless combination of Ruth Krauss's simple text and Crockett Johnson's eloquent illustrations creates a triumphant and deeply satisfying story for readers of all ages.
Trying something new isn't always easy, but the hardest work often yields the greatest reward learn the basic steps and process of starting a garden, the importance of patience and how it is possible to learn from your mistakes. You and your children will learn all about the Gaines family's story of becoming gardeners in Joanna's first children's book--starting with the first little fern Chip bought for Jo. Over the years, the family's love for gardening has blossomed into what is now a beautiful, bustling garden.
After sowing unmarked seeds, three youngsters wait expectantly for their garden to grow
Rah, rah, radishes, red and white!
Carrots are calling. Take a bite!
Oh boy, bok choy, Brussels sprout.
Broccoli! Cauliflower! Shout it out!
Know anyone who doesn’t like veggies? Here is a book that's sure to change their hungry minds! With raucous, rhyming text, Rah, Rah, Radishes! celebrates fresh vegetables, nature’s bright colors, and the joy of healthy eating. The book’s interactive spirit encourages kids to join in on the read-aloud fun, and little ones won't be able to resist the book’s vibrant photographs—they’re a feast for the eyes!
Early Readers & Young Children
This is a clear and appealing environmental science book for early elementary age kids, both at home and in the classroom. Plus it includes a find out more activity section with a simple experiment encouraging kids to discover what a seed needs to grow.
Following a snow-filled winter, a young boy and his dog decide that they've had enough of all that brown and resolve to plant a garden. They dig, they plant, they play, they wait . . . and wait . . . until at last, the brown becomes a more hopeful shade of brown, a sign that spring may finally be on its way.
One boy's quest for a greener world... one garden at a time.
While out exploring one day, a little boy named Liam discovers a struggling garden and decides to take care of it. As time passes, the garden spreads throughout the dark, gray city, transforming it into a lush, green world.
Barbara Cooney's story of Alice Rumphius, who longed to travel the world, live in a house by the sea, and do something to make the world more beautiful, has a timeless quality that resonates with each new generation. The countless lupines that bloom along the coast of Maine are the legacy of the real Miss Rumphius, the Lupine Lady, who scattered lupine seeds everywhere she went. Miss Rumphius received the American Book Award in the year of publication.
Teach kids to compost and help them develop life-long habits to protect the Earth. From apple cores to zinnia heads, readers will discover the best ingredients for a successful compost pile in this fun picture book perfect for Earth Day!
Kids everywhere are seeking knowledge about the environment and climate change. Not only is composting becoming more common in households and residential gardens, but many school gardens feature compost piles, too. But how do you start a compost pile? What’s safe to include? Perfect for an Earth Day focus or year-round reference, this inviting book provides all the answers for kids and families looking for simple, child-friendly ways to help the planet.
Come to the garden that Jack planted!
You'll see seeds and seedlings, buds and leaves, birds and bugs and butterflies. And best of all, you'll watch the garden bloom.
This beautifully told story follows Billy from early spring to late summer as he helps his grandpa on his vegetable patch. They dig the hard ground, sow rows of seeds, and keep them watered and safe from slugs. When harvest time arrives they can pick all the vegetables and fruit they have grown. Children will be drawn in by the poetry of the language and the warm illustrations, while also catching the excitement of watching things grow! Includes educational endnotes on gardening throughout the year.
Through a hole in the book’s cover, a bee is buzzing inside a flower. Peek into this bright and lively book and discover the big ways this little insect contributes to the beauty of the environment, from pollinating colorful flowers to buzzing about the bright and beautiful meadow.
With clever peekaboo holes throughout, each page reveals new flowers and plants, plus a look inside a beehive as the bees work together to help plants grow.
The Garden Jungle is about the wildlife that lives right under our noses, in our gardens and parks, between the gaps in the pavement, and in the soil beneath our feet. Wherever you are right now, the chances are that there are worms, woodlice, centipedes, flies, silverfish, wasps, beetles, mice, shrews and much, much more, quietly living within just a few paces of you.
Anna and Benjamin's family have just moved to a new house and can't wait to turn their messy yard into a beautiful garden, but first they must plan, plant and learn how to care for it.
With the help of their neighbor Louis, the children grow beautiful flowers and tasty vegetables and discover the amazing wildlife living in their new garden.
As the seasons change, Anna and Benjamin learn about all the wonderful things you can do in a garden: planting, harvesting, playing, enjoying picnics and spotting insects.
Alongside the charming story, A Year in Our New Garden also gives real gardening tips accompanied by beautifully detailed illustrations. This delightful and lively book will inspire children to get outdoors, be active and learn how nature changes around them through the year.
Middle Grade Books
When young Mary Lennox loses her parents to a terrible illness, she is thrust into a new life with her reclusive uncle in the confines of the enigmatic Misselthwaite Manor. Consumed by bitterness and loneliness, Mary’s life is about to change once more when she stumbles upon a hidden key and a long-forgotten door—a gateway to a secret garden full of mystery and splendor, where time stands still.
As Mary unravels the mysteries of the secret garden's neglected beauty, she embarks on a new adventure with her spirited maid and loyal companion Martha, her kind-hearted brother Dickon, and Colin, Mary’s fragile cousin, whose illness has confined him in his chambers for years. Soon, Mary starts to blossom through the healing power of nature, helping Colin rediscover the beauty of life.
This is the story of thirteen strangers who find fertile ground in an otherwise failing neighborhood, and form both a beautiful garden and a profound sense of community.
This colossal 8-book combo set includes the entire Green Ember Series plus four additional companion novellas by S.D. Smith. Fight alongside your favorite sword-bearing rabbits as they battle bravely for their survival and a hopeful future beyond! The reading order for books included in this set is: 1. The Green Ember 2. The Black Star of Kingston 3. Ember Falls 4. The Last Archer: A Green Ember Story 5. Ember Rising 6. The Wreck and Rise of Whitson Mariner 7. The First Fowler: A Green Ember Story 8. Ember's End
Get lost in the imaginative world of the Fan Brothers: a place you'll want to revisit again and again.
"Something was happening on Grimloch Lane. Something good."
One day, William discovers that the tree outside his window has been sculpted into a wise owl. Each day, more topiaries appear, each one more beautiful than the last. Soon, William's grey little town is full of colour and life. And, though the mysterious night gardener disappears as suddenly as he appeared, William and his town are changed forever.
While Isa is off at sleepaway orchestra camp, Jessie, Oliver, Hyacinth, and Laney are stuck at home in the brownstone with nothing to do but get on one another’s nerves. But when catastrophe strikes their beloved upstairs neighbor, their sleepy summer transforms in an instant as the Vanderbeeker children band together to do what they do best: make a plan. They will create the most magical healing garden in all of Harlem.
Teens and young adult
Mason has never known his father, but longs to. All he has of him is a DVD of a man whose face is never seen, reading a children's book. One day, on a whim, he plays the DVD for a group of comatose teens at the nursing home where his mother works. One of them, a beautiful girl, responds. Mason learns she is part of a horrible experiment intended to render teenagers into autotrophs―genetically engineered, self-sustaining life-forms who don't need food or water to survive. And before he knows it, Mason is on the run with the girl, and wanted, dead or alive, by the mysterious mastermind of this gruesome plan, who is simply called the Gardener.
When a meteor knocks the moon closer to earth, Miranda, a high school sophomore, takes shelter with her family.
Told in a year’s worth of journal entries, Life as We Knew It chronicles the human struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all—hope—in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.
As August turns dark and wintery in northeastern Pennsylvania, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove.
he Enchanted April follows the story of four strangers: Mrs. Wilkins and Mrs. Arbuthnot, two housewives whose marriages have lost their spark; Mrs. Fisher, an elderly widow who longs for the days of her youth; and the beautiful socialite, Lady Caroline. Seeking a vacation and a desperately needed change of scenery, each woman answers an ad in the Times to rent a medieval castle for the month of April. Arriving at their beautiful temporary home in the picturesque country of Italy, the women–both individually and apart–go on journeys of self-discovery; growing as friends and learning the joy and value of having a room of one's own.
Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things―from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen―provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us. With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons of plant life to a new generation.