I adored Wincy Willis' non-fiction book 'Greendays' as a teen. Published in 1990 (as you can tell by the author photo!) it is set out as a diary, with a green-act or a green-fact for every day of the year, plus space to write in diary entries, e.g. July 17th's entry says "Have you wasted any paper today? Up to 17 trees are used to make 1 tonne of paper". September 28th's says "We CAN make a difference to what happens in our world. Each of us can set an example. A successful pressure group is only made up of a lot of caring individuals."
Most of the books I mention below are so new that unfortunately they won't be available second-hand yet. So, why not club together with friends / family and agree to buy different ones and then share them between you? A big part of eco living is actually about doing less - buying less, wanting less...
As many as possible of the links below are for hive.co.uk or for bookshop.org - both are online book suppliers (tax-paying and based in the UK) which support local bookshops.
To help you navigate the alphabetically-ordered list, those books released this year are marked with their *release date* and the suggested age suitability is given in brackets. Some on the list are toddler board books, these are marked with *BOARD* - as it's never too early to start raising an eco-warrior!
So, these are the planet-loving books, all ideal to share with kids (though you'll love them too), which have caught my eye...
10 Things I Can Do to Help My World (age 3-5 years)
23 Ways to be An Eco Hero (age 9-12 years)
50 Things to Try to Save the World (age 8-12 years)
100 Endangered Species (age 8+ years)
100 Things to Know About Saving the Planet (age 8+ years)
101 Small Ways to Change the World (age 9-12 years)
A Climate in Chaos (age 8-10 years)
Activists Assemble - Save Your Planet (age 8-12 years)
*Newly added* A Kid's Guide to Saving the Planet : It's Not Hopeless and We're Not Helpless (age 9-13 years)
Alba the Hundred Year Old Fish (age 4-7 years)
Amara and the Bats (age 5-8 years)
Anywhere Farm (age 2-5 years)
A Planet Full of Plastic: and how you can help (age 6-8 years)
A Song of Gladness: A story of hope for us and our planet (age 3-6 years)
Atlas of Ocean Adventures (age 7-12 years)
A Turtle's View of the Ocean Blue (age 6-9 years)
A World Full of Wildlife and How You Can Protect It (age 6-9 years)
A Year in Fleurville (age 5 - 10 years)
Be a Tree! (age 4-8 years)
Beetles for Breakfast : ... and other weird and wonderful ways we could save the planet (age 8-12 years)
Be Green! (Mindful Kids Activity Book) (age 7-10 years)
Be Plastic Clever (age 5-9 years)
Be the Change : Rob Greenfield's Call to Kids - Making a Difference in a Messed-Up World (age 8-12 years)
Bird's Eye View (age 3-5years)
Blue Planet 2 (age 8-11 years)
Busy Recycle (age 0-3 years)
*toddler BOARD book*
By Ash, Oak and Thorn (age 9-12 years)
Bye, Car (age 3-6 years)
*Newly added* Can we Save the Tiger? (age 5-7 years)
Captain Green and the Plastic Scene (age 3-6 years)
Captain Green and the Tree Machine (age 3-6 years)
Carbon Monster (age 6-9 years)
Caring for the Environment (I’m a Global Citizen) (age 9-11 years)
Cast Away: Poems of Our Time (age 9-12 years)
Change Starts With Us! (age 1-5 years)
*toddler BOARD book*
Charlie and Lola: Look After Your Planet (age 3-5 years)
Clean Up! (age 2-5 years)
Clem and Crab (age 3-5 years)
Climate Action : The future is in our hands (age 7-12 years)
Climate Change Infographics (Nov 2018) (age 8-12 years)
Climate Change (What's the Issue?) (age 9-12 years)
Climate Crisis for Beginners (age 10+ years)
Climate Rebels (age 10-12+)
Compost Stew (age 3-7 years)
Curious Questions & Answers about Saving the Earth (ages 8-10 years)
Dear Earth (age 3-6 years)
Dear Greenpeace (age 3-5 years)
*Newly added* Diary of a Young Naturalist (age 11 - 13)
Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish (age 3-5 years)
DKfindout! Climate Change (age 7-9 years)
Don't Let Them Disappear (age 4-8 years)
Earth Friends: Fair Fashion (age 7-9 years)
Eco Baby : Ice Caps (age 0-3 years) *toddler BOARD book*
Eco Baby: Recycling (age 0-3 years) *toddler BOARD book*
Eco Hero in Training: Become a Top Ecologist (age 5-8 years)
Eco Heroes (age 9-13 years)
Eco Warriors (age 0-3 years) *toddler BOARD book* (also listed as My First Heroes: Eco Warriors)
Eco Warrior: Understand, Persuade, Change, Campaign, Act! (age 11+ years)
Elephant in my Kitchen! (age 3-5 years)
Every Little Kindness (age 5-8 years)
Fantastically Great Women Who Saved the Planet (age 8-12 years)
Fantastically Great Women Who Saved the Planet Activity Book (age 10-12 years)
Fashion Conscious (age 12-17 years)
Find Out About: Saving Our Planet (age 1-5 years) *toddler lift-the-flap BOARD book*
Finn the Fortunate Tiger Shark and His Fantastic Friends (age 3-6 years)
Fish : A tale about ridding the ocean of plastic pollution (age 0-5 years)
Future Friend (age 8-13 years)
*Released September 2022* Frozen Planet 2 (age 8-11 years)
Gaia's Revenge (The Earth Chronicles Book 2) (age 10+ years)
George Saves The World By Lunchtime (age 2-6 years)
Go Green! Activity Book (age 7-11 years)
Good to be Green: Don't Waste your Food (age 5-7 years)
Good to be Green: Let's Walk to School (age 5-7 years)
Good to be Green: Rubbish or Recycling? (age 5-7 years)
Good to be Green: Save and Mend (age 5-7 years)
Good to be Green: Save the Animals (age 5-7 years)
Good to be Green: Turn Off the Tap (age 5-7 years)
Green Kids Cook: Simple, delicious recipes & Top Tip - Good for you, Good for the Planet (age 8-14 years)
Green Rebel Activity Book (age 8-10 years)
Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest (age 4-7 years)
Guardians of the Planet: How to be an Eco-Hero (age 8-11 years)
Hannah and the Hollow Tree (The Earth Chronicles Book 1) (age 10+ years)
Harry Saves the Ocean! (age 1-6 years)
Hello, Mr World (age 2-6 years)
Helping Our Planet (age 8+ years)
Hope Jones Saves the World (age 9-11 years)
Hope Jones Will Not Eat Meat (age 9-11 years)
How Do We Stop Climate Change? Mind Mappers (age 8-12 years)
How the World Works (lift the flaps) (age 8-10)
How To Change Everything (age 11-17)
How To Change The World (age 8+ years)
How to Save the World with a Chicken and an Egg (age 8-12 years)
How You Can Save the Planet (age 9-12 years)
I Am the Lorax (Dr. Seuss's I Am Board Books) (age 0-3 years) *toddler BOARD book*
If Bees Disappeared (age 5-8 years)
If Elephants Disappeared (age 6-8 years)
If Polar Bears Disappeared (age 6-8 years)
If You Come to Earth (age 5 - 10 years)
In the Forest (age 4-8 years)
*paper-cut pop-up book*
It's Only One! (age 3-6 years)
It's Up to Us (age 6-10 years)
Jessie the Jellyfish (age 3-7 years)
Kids Fight Climate Change: Act now to be a #2minutesuperhero (age 8-12 years)
Kids Fight Plastic: How to be a #2minutesuperhero (age 8-12 years)
Leaf (age 3-7 years)
Let's Investigate Plastic Pollution (age 5-8 years)
Lily and the Polar Bears (age 2-5 years)
Lift-the-Flap Looking After Our Planet (age 5-7 years)
Lift-the-Flap Questions and Answers About Plastic (age 5-7 years)
Lift the Flap Questions and Answers about Recycling and Rubbish (age 5-7 years)
Like the Ocean We Rise (age 6-9 years)
Little Inventors Go Green!: Inventing for a Better Planet (age 7-12 years)
Little Inventors Mission Oceans!: Invention Ideas to Save the Seas (age 7-12 years)
Little Naturalists: Jane Goodall and the Chimpanzees (age 0-3 years)
*toddler BOARD book*
Little Naturalists: Johnny Appleseed (age 0-3 years)
*toddler BOARD book*
Little Naturalists: Wangari Maathai Planted Trees (age 0-3 years)
*toddler BOARD book*
Little People Big Dreams - David Attenborough (age 4-7 years) *Also available as a BOARD book* My First David Attenborough (age 1-3 years)
Little People Big Dreams - Greta Thunberg (age 4-7 years) *Also available as a BOARD book* My First Greta Thurnberg (age 1-3 years)
Little People Dream Big - Jane Goodall (age 4-7 years) *Also available as a BOARD book* My First Jane Goodall (age 1-3 years)
Little Turtle and the Sea (age 3-6 years)
Look After Us (age 1-3 years)
*toddler BOARD book*
Look Inside What We Throw Away (age 5-7 years)
Lots: The Diversity of Life on Earth (age 5-8 years)
Lottie Saves the Polar Bears: Lottie Lovall International Investigator (age 8 -12 years)
Love Grows Everywhere (age 4-7 years)
Love Our Earth (age 3-6 years)
Love the Orangutan an IKEA book (age 7+ years)
Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau (age 6-9 years)
Max Takes a Stand (age 8-10 years)
*Newly added* Meet the Oceans (age 3-5 years)
Melt (age 10+)
Michael Recycle (age 6-8 years)
Michael Recycle's Environmental Adventures (age 6-8 years)
Michael Recycle Meets Litterbug Doug (age 6-8 years)
Milk and Juice: A Recycling Romance (age 4-8 years)
Mother Earth is Weeping (age 3-11 years)
Mr Men: Little Miss Go Green (age 2-5 years)
My First Green Cookbook (age 6-11 years)
My First Heroes: Eco Warriors (age 0-3 years) *toddler BOARD book* (also listed as Eco Warriors)
My Friend Earth (age 3-5 years)
My Green Day : 10 Green Things I Can Do Today (age 3-5 years)
National Trust: How to Help a Hedgehog and Protect a Polar Bear (age 7-10 years)
Nature Needs You! Join the Green Team and find out about the wonders of our natural world (age 7-11 years)
Number 7 Evergreen Street (age 4-6 years)
Oi! Get Off Our Train (age 5-7 years)
Old Enough to Save the Planet: With a foreword from the leaders of the School Strike for Climate Change (age 4-7 years)
Omar, the Bees and Me (age 4-7 years)
One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of Gambia (age 6-9 years)
One World: 24 Hours on Planet Earth (age 6-12 years)
One World: 30th Anniversary Special Edition (age 4-7 years)
*Newly added* Our Little Inventor (age 4-8 years)
Our Planet: The official children’s companion to the Netflix documentary series with special foreword by David Attenborough (age 9+ years)
Peep Inside How a Recycling Truck Works Board Book (age 3-6 years)
Planet Awesome! (age 5-9 years)
*Newly added* Planet Earth (First Facts and Flaps) (age 3-6 years)
Planet SOS: 22 Modern Monsters Threatening Our Environment (and What You Can Do to Defeat Them!) (age 8-12 years)
Plastic: past, present, and future (age 7-10 years)
Plastic Planet: How Plastic Came to Rule the World (and What You Can Do to Change It) (age 9-12 years)
Plastic Pollution on Land and in the Oceans: Let's Investigate (age 6-9 years)
Plastic Sucks! You Can Make A Difference (age 10+ years)
Please Help Planet Earth (age 1-3 years)
*toddler BOARD book*
Protect the Planet!: World Book Day 2021 (age 5-7 years)
Protecting the Planet (age 6-10)
Recycle and Remake : Creative Projects for Eco Kids (age 5-9 years)
Recycling! (Helping Hands) (age 2-5 years)
Rise Up: Ordinary Kids with Extraordinary Stories (age 9-12 years)
Sally and the Limpet (age 3-5 years)
Save the Seas : Join the Green Team and find out why our seas and oceans need protecting (age 7-11 years)
Saving Tally: An Adventure into the Great Pacific Plastic Patch (age 3-12 years)
See Inside: Energy (age 6-9 years)
See Inside: Rubbish and Recycling (age 6-9 years)
See Inside: Why Plastic is a Problem (age 6-9 years)
Somebody Crunched Colin (age 3-6 years)
Somebody Swallowed Stanley (age 3-6 years)
*Newly added* Somebody Woke Wilson (age 3-6 years)
Stella and the Seagull (age 3-6 years)
Stuff : Eco-Stories of Everyday Stuff (age 7-10 years)
Ten Things I Can Do to Help My World (age 3-5 years)
The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story about Recycling (age 4-6 years)
The Adventures of Scout: Stop Dropping Litter (age 5-8 years)
The Big Book of Belonging (age 4-6 years)
The Biggest Footprint (age 8-adult)
The Big Green Activity Book (age 7-9 years)
The Big Green Book (pop up) (age 6-8 years)
The Blue Giant (age 5-7 years)
The Brilliant Recycling Project Book : Recycle old socks and toilet rolls into marvellous makes! (age 6-8 years)
*Newly added* The Coral Kingdom (age 3 - 5 years)
The Earth Book (age 3-6 years)
The Ecology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained (age 16+ years)
The Extraordinary Life of Greta Thunberg (age 9-12 years)
The Farm that Feeds Us: A year in the life of an organic farm (age 7-11 years)
The Fate of Fausto (age 4+ years)
The Girl Who Talked To Trees (ages 9-12)
The Great Big Green Book (age 8-10 years)
The Green Giant (age 5-7 years)
The Green Planet : BBC series presented by David Attenborough (age 8-11 years)
The Incredible Ecosystems of Planet Earth (age 9-11 years)
The Journey Home (age 3-5 years)
The Last Bear (age 8-12)
The Last Seaweed Pie (age 5-7 years)
The Last Straw: Kids vs. Plastics (age 9-12 years)
The Last Tiger (age 3-6 years)
The Last Tree (age 3-6 years)
The Lorax : Special How to Save the Planet edition (age 4+ years)
The Not So Green Queen (age 3-6 years)
The Ocean Book: Explore the Hidden Depths of Our Blue Planet (Lonely Planet) (age 10+ years)
*Newly added* The Odd Fish (age 3-6 years)
The Old Boat (age 5-7 years)
The Planet in a Pickle Jar (age 4-6 years)
The Promise (age 5-7 years)
There's a Rang-Tan in My Bedroom (age 5-7 years)
The Sea Book (age 5-9 years)
The Sea Swallow and the Humpback Whale: Two Incredible Journeys Across the Sky and Sea (age 5-8 years)
The Story of Climate Change (age 5-8 years)
The Tale of a Toothbrush: A Story of Plastic in Our Oceans (age 3-9 years)
The Tindims of Rubbish Island (book 1) (age 5-9 years)
The Tindims and the Turtle Tangle (book 2) (age 5-9 years)
The Tindims and the Ten Green Bottles (book 3) (age 5-9 years)
The Tindims and the Floating Moon (book 4) (age 5-9 years)
The Tin Forest (age 0-5 years)
The Twelve Green Days of Christmas (age 3-6 years)
The Unexpected Visitor (age 3-6 years)
*Newly added* The Whale Who Ate Plastic (age 3-6 years)
The Whale Who Wanted More (age 3-6 years)
The Wide, Wide Sea (age 3-7 years)
This Book Will (Help) Cool the Climate: 50 Ways to Cut Pollution, Speak Up and Protect Our Planet! (age 9-11 years)
*Newly added* This Book Will Save the Planet (age 12-16 years)
Too Much Stuff (age 3-6 years)
Turtle Rescue (age 6-12 years)
Two Bears (age 3-6 years)
*Released September 2022* Walk of the Whales (age 3 - 8 years)
Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa (age 4-7 years)
What A Waste: Rubbish, Recycling, and Protecting our Planet (age 7-9 years)
When the Bees Buzzed Off - lift the flap book (age 3-6 years)
When We Went Wild (age 4-7 years)
Wild City: Meet the animals who share our city spaces (age 8-12 years)
Wonderful Earth! (age 2-6 years)
You Can Save the Planet (age 13+ years)
You CAN save the planet (age 7-11 years)
You Can Save The Planet: 101 Ways You Can Make a Difference (age 9-11 years)
Zero Waste Kids (age 9-11 years)
Happy reading!