Children’s Books About Plants, Trees

Children’s Books About Plants, Trees, and Forests

Looking for resources for the classroom? Here’s a list of some of the books available to you. The listing encompasses a variety of those you might refer to, those you might read aloud to your class, or those your students could read on their own. Look for them in public and school libraries for loaning and among new and used books at your local bookstore.

** Denotes books contained in the OFEP Box.

Trees

Title: A Busy Year
Author: Leo Lionni
Publisher: Knopf, 1992
Description: Twin mice admire their favorite tree during each month of the year in a lesson on the seasons.

Title: The Beautiful Christmas Tree
Author: Charlotte Zolotow
Publisher: 1972
Description: Mr. Crockett buys an empty brownstone and a little pine tree from the flower shop. He nurtures is through the winter and when spring comes he plants the tree, which becomes a majestic pine as the years pass.

Title: The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree
Author: Stan Berenstain
Publisher: Beginner Books, 1978
Description: Three terrified little bears explore the inside of a mysterious old tree.

Title: The Big Tree **
Author: Bruce Hiscock
Publisher: Atheneum Books-MacMillan, 1991
Description: Hiscock uses a tree in his neighbor’s backyard as the focal point for a discussion of a tree’s life cyle.

Title: Christmas Tree Farm **
Author: Jordan Sandra
Publisher: 1993
Description: Describes the activities that take place on a Christmas tree farm in Rhode Island throughout each season of the year.

Title: Crinkleroot’s Guide to Knowing the Trees **
Author: Jim Arnosky
Publisher: Bradbury Press-MacMillan, 1992
Description: This book explains the parts of a tree, uses leaves, seeds, and fall colors to differentiate among species, Arnosky then describes the differences between hardwood and softwood forests, emphasizing the advantages of mixed woods to the many creatures that live in it.

Title: Discovering Trees
Author: Keith Brandt
Publisher: Troll Associates, 1982
Description: Briefly discusses the growth of trees from seeds, the parts of trees, and the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees.

Title: Ellie, the Evergreen **
Author: Jean Warren
Publisher: Totline Publishers, 1993
Description: Ellie the evergreen is sad in the fall when all of the other trees change color, but when winter arrives, she becomes the most beautiful tree in the park.

Title: Familiar Friends
Author: Rhonda Whittlesey
Publisher: Rose Press, 1985

Title: The Fir Tree
Author: H.C. Andersen
Publisher: Harper & Row, 1970
Description: Tale of a little fir tree who lived in the beautiful deep forest, but yearned for something grander.

Title: The Gift of the Tree **
Author: Alvin Tresselt
Publisher: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Books, 1972
Description: The role of an oak tree in the cycle of nature is revealed as an ancient tree, even as it dies and returns to the earth, provides nourishment for new life all around it.

Title: The Giving Tree **
Author: Shel Silverstein
Publisher: Harper & Row, 1964
Description: This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another’s capacity to love in return.

Title: The Grandpa Tree
Author: Mike Donahue
Publisher: Roberts Rinehart Inc., 1988
Description: The elementary tale of the life cycle of a tree, from its beginnings as a sapling to its demise on the forest floor, where it decomposes and becomes “a home fro rabbits, and food for flowers.”

Title: The Great Kapok Tree **
Author: Lynne Cherry
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990
Description: This book is a magnificent view of how the rainforest works together as a complex community.

Title: The Heart of the Wood **
Author: Marquerite W. Davol
Publisher: 1992
Description: Bold paintings on bark paper depicting characters from different cultures and a rhythmic verse follow the transformation of a tall tree in the forest into a singing fiddle at a picnic dance, showing that the power of the song still comes from the heart of the wood.

Title: Hug a Tree(and other things to do outdoors with young children)
Author: Robert E. Rockwell, Elizabeth A. Sherwood & Robert A. Williams
Publisher: Gryphon House Inc., 1983
Description: This book contains a wealth of activities to do outdoors with young children so that they will learn to appreciate their environment.

Title: Johnny Appleseed **
Author: Reeve Lindbergh
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company, 1990
Description: A glorious celebration of John (Johnny Appleseed) Chapman’s life through verse and illustration.

Title: A Log’s Life
Author: Wendy Pfeffer
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1997
Description: After an oak tree falls in the forest, it has another life as home to a variety of creatures.

Title: Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree
Author: Robert E. Barry
Publisher: Buccaneer Books, 1992
Description: The rhyming text tells the tale of a Christmas tree too tall for Mr. Willowby’s parlor.

Title: Mighty Tree **
Author: Dick Gackenbach
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1992
Description: Three seeds grow into three beautiful trees, each of which serves a different function in nature and for people.

Title: The Missing Maple Syrup Sap Mystery
Author: Gail Gibbons
Publisher: Warnbe & Co., 1979
Description: A story of how to make maple syrup.

Title: Mr. Plum and the Little Green Tree
Author: Helen Earle Gilbert
Publisher: Stone and Pierce Publishing, 1946

Title: Mr. Tamarin’s Trees
Author: Kathryn Ernst
Publisher: Crown Publishing Co., 1976
Description: This book is a wonderful tale with an environmental message for children and adults. The value of trees is concisely shown within the context of a story and illustrations.

Title: Night Tree
Author: Eve Bunting
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Description: On a cold Christmas Eve, a family gathers their supplies, piles into a pickup truck, and drives out to Luke’s Forest, where they greet their favorite tree like an old friend.

Title: Trees (Now I Know Series)
Author: Sharon Gordon
Publisher: Troll Associates, 1983

Title: Old Stump
Author: John Hawkinson
Publisher: Whitman & Co., 1965
Description: A story that helps children learn to appreciate the living creatures in nature.

Title: Once There Was a Tree **
Author: Natalia Romanova
Publisher: Dial Books, 1985
Description: An old stump attracts many living creatures.

Title: The Peach Tree
Author: Norman Pike
Publisher: Stemmer House, 1984
Description: A peach tree's existence is threatened by an overpopulation of aphidsuntil ladybugs come to the rescue and restore the balance of nature. Pike attempts to demonstrate the interrelation of all living things by focusing on a limited food chain: tree feeds aphids who feed ladybugs.

Title: The People Who Hugged Trees **
Author: Deborah Lee Rose
Publisher: Roberts Rinehart Inc., 1990
Description: Based on a classic folk tale from India, this haunting story gives children insight into India’s history and culture while teaching them that environmental protection is everyone’s concern.

Title: Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf
Author: Lois Ehlert
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991
Description: A simple narrative celebrating a child’s pleasure in a sugar maple is extended with excellent notes on the tree’s parts as well as lucid instructions for planting and caring for it.

Title: The Season of Arnold’s Apple Tree
Author: Gail Gibbons
Publisher: Voyager Books, 1984
Description: In a fun book that teaches about the changing seasons, Arnold enjoys the pleasures of his apple tree: its buds and blossoms in the spring, its sheltering boughs in summer, the tasty apples in the fall, and in winter, the bare branches hold strings of popcorn and berries for the birds.

Title: The Sheep and the Rowan Tree
Author: Julia Butcher
Publisher: Holt & Co., 1986
Description: A discontented rowan tree learns to appreciate its position more after being visited by a well-traveled bird, who tells it how unsuitable it would be to live anywhere else.
Title: Sky Tree **
Author: Thomas Locker
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, 1995
Description: This text records the changes in the tree’s world just as simply as a child might observe them, and his magnificent paintings crystallize the natural phenomena that embellish the tree on each page.

Title: The Story of Johnny Appleseed **
Author: Aliki
Publisher: Prentice-Hall, 1963
Description: Retells the story of John Chapman whose devotion to planting apple trees made him a legendary figure in American history.

Title: The Sugar Pear Tree
Author: Clyde Bulla
Publisher: Crowell Publishers, 1961
Description: Lonnie wins a pear tree in a school contest but has no place toplant it since his house will soon be moved to make way for a new road. Grandfather, however ignores all warnings to move and one night Lonnie, Mother, and Gramp find themselves put out on the sidewalk with no place to go.

Title: Tanya’s Big Dream **
Author: Linda Glaser
Publisher: Maxwell MacMillan International, 1994
Description: A short, chapter book about a fourth grader’s struggle to complete her ambitious Earth Day project: planting a live in a city park.

Title: Tonia the Tree **
Author: Sandy Stryker
Publisher: Advocacy Press, 1988
Description: A great book to share with children hesitant in having to experience change.

Title: The Tree
Author: Pascale de Bourgoing
Publisher: Scholastic First Discovery Books, 1992
Description: In the latest addition to a nonfiction series for the curious preschooler, readers can witness each stage of the growth of a tree and then watch it change with the seasons.

Title: A Tree in the Forest
Author: Jan Thornhill
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1991
Description: The text chronicles the two-hundred-year life of a maple tree from its beginnings as a seed to its vital role as a decaying log.

Title: The Tree in the Ancient Forest **
Author: Carol Reed-Jones
Publisher: Dawn Publications, 1995
Description: A 300 year-old fir tree is the main character in a forest drama depicting the cycle of interdependence between plants and animals.

Title: Tree in the Trail **
Author: Holling C. Holling
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1979
Description: The story of a cottonwood tree that watched the pageant of history on the Santa Fe Trail where it stood, a landmark to travelers and a peace-medicine tree to Indians, for over 200 years.

Title: A Tree is Nice **
Author: Janice May Udry
Publisher: Harper & Row, 1956
Description: This book teaches kids not only how important a tree is to the world, but also how much fun they can be.

Title: Tree of Life: The World of the African Baobab **
Author: Barbara Bash
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Co. Inc., 1989
Description: Text and pictures document the life cycle of this amazing tree of the African savannah, and portrays the animals and people it helps to support.

Title: A Tree on Your Street
Author: Seymour Simon
Publisher: Holiday House Inc., 1973
Description: Shows you how to find out about a tree on your street by working the way a scientist does.

Title: The Tree That Would Not Die **
Author: Ellen Levine
Publisher: Scholastic Inc., 1995
Description: The story of a five hundred year old Treaty Oak in Austin, Texas, is told from the tree’s point of view, covers the nation’s history that took place during the tree’s lifetime, and describes the malicious 1989 poisoning that nearly destroyed it.

Title: A Tree With a Thousand Uses
Author: Aileen Fischer
Publisher: AAA, 1978

Title: Trees to Know in Oregon
Author: Edward C. Jensen & Charles R. Ross
Publisher: Oregon State University - College of Forestry
Description: A good reference about the trees that grow in the state of Oregon. It covers all the native conifers and deciduous trees that grow in Oregon.

Title: The Tremendous Tree Book **
Author: May Garelick & Barbara Brenner
Publisher: Four Winds Press, 1979
Description: This book takes complex material about trees and pares it down to basic facts that children can understand and enjoy.

Title: Under the Early Morning Trees
Author: Arnold Adoff
Publisher: E.P. Dutton, 1978
Description: Nature poems in free verse with illustrations.

Title: The View From the Oak
Author: Judith and Herbert Kohl
Publisher: Sierra Club Books, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1977
Description: A book about the way perception affects the world, especially in regards to humans and other animals.

Title: Who Lives in This Log?
Author: Wilda S. Ross
Publisher: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan Inc., 1971

Title: Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree
Author: William Miller
Publisher: Lee & Low Books, 1994
Description: Dreaming of living in the cities that she sees from the top of the chinaberry tree, young Zora learns about reaching for her dreams and listens to the stories of her fellow townspeople, from whom she obtains the secret of keeping the past alive.

Forests

Title: Ancient Ones: The World of the Old-Growth Douglas Fir **
Author: Barbara Bash
Publisher: 1994
Description: Bash portrays an old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest from a human perspective on the ground and gazing into its heights, then focuses on the species-rich habitats of canopy, snags, the forest floor, and a nearby stream.

Title: Be a Friend to Trees
Author: Patricia Lauber
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Description: This book shows that trees are something that we can’t live without. It talks about trees as home and food for various animals, as providers of fruits and nuts for humans, as sources of wood and paper, and as conserves of soil.

Title: Blaze and the Forest Fire
Author: C.W. Anderson
Publisher: Maxwell MacMillan International, 1992
Description: Blaze and the Forest Fire is part of the classic Billy and Blaze series that captures the warmth and special understanding between a boy and his horse.

Title: California Blue
Author: David Klass
Publisher: Point, 1996
Description: John Rodgers lives in a northern California logging town, but the redwoods he runs through mean more to him than a livelihood. This book explores the human cost of environmental action suggests that there are alternatives to the simplistic “butterfly vs. logging jobs” model.

Title: Farewell to Shady Glade
Author: Bill Peet
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966
Description: Bulldozers push the raccoon and his friends from their home, but they are able to find a new one after a terrifying train ride.

Title: The First Forest **
Author: John Gile
Publisher: Worzalla, 1989
Description: This tale tells what happens when greed enters the very first, perfect forest and spoils the trees’ beauty and peace.

Title: The Floratorium
Author: Jeanne Oppenheim
Publisher: 1994
Description: Youngsters visit tropical ran forests, rolling prairies, flowering deserts, and the Arctic tundra and return with an understanding of life in those habitats.

Title: How the Forest Grew
Author: William Jaspersohn
Publisher: Green Willow Books, 1980
Description: Describes the gradual transformation of a cleared farm field into a dense forest.

Title: The Man Who Planted Trees
Author: Jean Giono
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Co., 1985
Description: A compelling story of a simple man who eases his grief over the loss of his family by planting enough acorns to create a forest in a barren area of France.

Title: Merle the High Flying Squirrel
Author: Bill Peet
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1974
Description: Unhappy about the noise and clutter of the city, a squirrel travels west to find peace and quiet in the forest of giant trees he has heard about.

Title: One Day in the Tropical Rain Forest **
Author: Jean Craighead George
Publisher: Harper Trophy, 1990
Description: When an impending plot threatens his rainforest home, a Venezuelan Indian boy desperately hopes to stop the imminent destruction and enlists the help of a visiting scientist.

Title: Our Friend the Forest
Author: Patricia Lauber
Publisher: Doubleday & Co. Inc., 1959

Title: Pharmacy in the Forest **
Author: Fred Powledge
Publisher: Antheneum Books, 1998
Description: This book discusses the many medicines that have come from forest and stresses the need for conservation in order to preserve potential cures as yet unknown to the medical community.

Title: Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening
Author: Robert Frost
Publisher: Dutton, 1978
Description: The poem leaves readers wondering, “Where was the man going on the darkest night of the year?” and “Why on earth did he stop by the woods in a snowstorm?”

Title: Tongass: The Last American Rainforest
Author: Shelly Gill
Publisher: Paws IV Publishers, 1997
Description: Explore part of North America’s rainforest, the setting for this story about Lily, a Tlingit Indian girl who searches with her aunt for a special spruce tree.

Title: When the Monkeys Came Back
Author: Kristine L. Franklin
Publisher: Atheneum Books – MacMillan, 1994
Description: Years after the jungle in her Costa Rica valley is cut down, Don ala Marta persuades her husband to give her a piece of land on which she plants trees that she and descendants care for until they grow into a forest and the monkeys that had once lived there return.

Title: Where the Forest Meets the Sea **
Author: Jeannie Baker
Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 1987
Description: Lifelike collage illustrations capture an extraordinary visual journey through a tropical rain forest in North Queensland, Australia, following a young boy as he wonders about the survival of his primeval wilderness that is now threatened by civilization.

Title: Whisper From the Woods **
Author: Victoria Wirth
Publisher: Green Tiger Press, 1991
Description: A gentle story about the relationship between a wise old tree and the young seedlings in the forest.

Title: The Woodland Steward
Author: James R. Fazio
Publisher: The Woodland Press, 1985
Description: A practical guide to the management of small private forests. Includes legal forms, checklists, and contact information.

Plants

Title: From Flower to Fruit
Author: Anne Ophelia Downden
Publisher: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1984
Description: A new edition of the critically praised 1984 book once again offers young readers a thoughtful, illustrated examination of the reproductive cycle of various flowering plants, tracing all steps in the process.

Title: The Fall of Freddie the Leaf **
Author: Leo Buscaglia
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, 2002
Description: As Freddie experiences the changing seasons along with his companion leaves, he learns that death is a part of life.

 

Title: How Leaves Change **
Author: Sylvia A. Johnson
Publisher: Lerner Publications Company, 1986
Description: Describes the structure and purpose of leaves, the ways in which they change as part of the natural cycle of the seasons, and the process that creates their autumn colors.

Title: How a Seed Grows
Author: Helen J. Jordan
Publisher: Thomas Crowell Co., 1975
Description: Jordan explains how a seed gets water, nutrients, and sunlight, while Krupinski’s detailed pictures dramatize how a little seed may become a flower, a vegetable, or even a huge oak tree.

Title: The Nature and Science of Leaves
Author: Jane Burton, 1997
Publisher: Gareth Stevens, 1997
Description: Discusses different kinds of leaves, the forms and colors they may have, and their functions.

Title: Plants That Never Bloom
Author: Ruth Heller
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap, 1984
Description: Rich, colorful illustrations, and informative, rhyming verse unlock a world where mushrooms glow at night and seaweed grows to be gigantic.

Title: A Tree is a Plant
Author: Clyde Robert Bulla
Publisher: Harper Trophy (reprint), 2001
Description: From the Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science series this book on the science of trees is designed for preschool and early-primary-grade children. The book follows an apple plant from seed to sprout tree, including the development of blossoms, leaves, and fruit.

Environment

Title: Just a Dream **
Author: Chris Van Allsbury
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1990
Description: Young Walter litters and refuses to sort trash for recycling, until he dreams of an overcrowded and polluted future which terrifies him into taking care of the Earth.

Title: The Lorax **
Author: Dr. Seuss
Publisher: Random House. 1971
Description: An exposition of the ecology crisis done the “Seuss” way.

Title: A Sand County Almanac **
Author: Aldo Leopold
Publisher: Ballatine Books, 1990
Description: Elaborates on Leopold’s view that it is something of a human duty to preserve as much wild land as possible, as a kind of bank for the biological future of all species.

Title: Seasons (First Start Science Series)
Author: Peggy Gaven
Publisher: Troll Publishers, 1994

Title: The Seed the Squirrel Dropped
Author: Haris Petie
Publisher: Prentice-Hall, 1976
Description: From the seed of a cherry comes a new tree that is cared for by a little boy until he is finally able to pick the cherries to make a pie.

Title: Seeds Pop-Stick-Glide
Author: Patricia Lauber
Publisher: Crown Publishers Inc., 1981
Description: Text and photographs describe the many different ways that seeds travel and disperse.

Title: Signs Along the River
Author: Kayo Robertson
Publisher: Rinehart Publishers, 1986

Title: Sign of the Beaver
Author: Elizabeth G. Speare
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Publishers, 1983
Description: When his father returns East to collect the rest of the family, 13-year-old Matt is left alone to guard his family’s newly built homestead.

Title: The Squirrel’s Tree Party
Author: Ida DeLarge
Publisher: Garrard Publishers, 1978
Description: When it rains, the squirrels decide to bake a cake & have a sunny day party.

Title: Thunder Cake **
Author: Patricia Polacco
Publisher: Paper Star, 1997
Description: Grandma consoles her frightened granddaughter by telling her that the dark clouds of the impending storm are nothing more than the ingredients for a Thunder Cake.

Title: The Way to Start a Day
Author: Byrd Baylor
Publisher: Aladdin Books-MacMillan, 1982
Description: This book for children shows how so many different peoples and cultures (from American Indians to African tribes to ancient Egyptians) have greeted the rising Sun with song and praise.

Title: Welcome to the Green House
Author: Jane Yolen
Publisher: G.P. Putnam, 1993
Description: Welcome to the green house where, day and night, the melodic prattle of exotic animals fills the air.

Title: Your Own Best Secret Place
Author: Byrd Baylor & Peter Parnall
Publisher: Charles Schribner’s Sons - MacMillan, 1979
Description: A gentle exploration of how a particular place can have special meaning.