New Books for Kids About Nature and Animals

If you’re wondering, the first day of spring was yesterday, March 21. Happy spring!! In celebration of the season, you can read these new released, wonderful picture books with your kids; they’re all about nature and animals.

New Spring Books for Kids About Nature and Animals

Touch Think Learn: Fly by Xavier Deneux (ages 1 – 4)

Little fingers get to move the 9 removable pieces in this appealing board book about a bird who finds a mate, builds a nest, and hatches eggs.

Hooray for Birds! by Lucy Cousins (ages 2 – 5)
This is an eye-catching primary color explosion of birds that immediately attracts attention. Add in the text that invites you to flap, soar, stretch, and fly, and it seems like a perfect combination to get kids engaged. I predict your kids will be up and flying around while you read them this appealing picture book gem. “Swoop up and down, swoop round and round.” FUN!

NOPE! A Tale of First Flight by Drew Sheneman (ages 3 – 5)
For any kid who has been afraid to try something, this book shows in hilarious and sweet illustrations (with almost no text) the bird’s fear of flying out of the next (think alligators and cats), his mama giving him a swift kick out, and his joyful exuberance of flying. Sheneman masterfully illustrates a wide emotional range in this lesson about facing your fears and trying something new.

Plant the Tiny Seed by Christie Matheson (ages 2 – 5)
By the same author of Tap the Magic Tree and Touch the Brightest Star, you’ll get to use your imagination as you read and touch, rub, press, shake, clap and more to help plant a garden. All the seeds need are water, rain, and sunshine to grow and you get to help.

Rain by Sam Usher (ages 4 – 8)
Sam is an imaginative boy who is stuck inside with his granddad during a rainstorm. Sam wants to splash in puddles, voyage with sea monsters, and visit a floating city. But does the rain stop? No. Until it does and Sam’s wait was worth it. Nice use of repetitive structure with a life lesson on patience.

How Many Baby Animals by Guido Van Genechten (ages 2 – 5)
Spring is when the baby animals are born. How many sheep will mama sheep have? Turn the mini-page and find out. Or how about mama cat or mama chicken? I prefer text that included actual counting to prompt kids but hopefully, kids will pause, count, and then read the words. “Shhhhh. Mama Mouse gave birth to eleven wee mice! // They love sleeping together. Isn’t that nice?” It is always fun to lift the flap and discover a surprise, making this a fun reading choice for children to practice counting and animal words.

Shell Beak Tusk: Shared Traits and the Wonders of Adaptation by Bridget Heos (ages 6 – 9)

Interesting information about adaptations like tall ears, spines, camouflage, and long sticky tongues plus gorgeous full-colored photos (that I could look at all day long) and brightly colored pages make this a nonfiction book kids are sure to pour over for hours.

Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal (ages 4 – 8)

Extra tall blue and earth-tone illustrations show a boy and his mother above the pond in a small rowboat. As they travel home, we see what else is on the top of the pond as well as the detailed ecosystem below. Not only will you enjoy the surprises of pond life, you’ll be learning as well. Stunning perspective of our interaction with natural world.

Wake Up! by Helen Frost, photos by Rick Lieder (ages 4 – 8)

See who is awake and what’s new in nature. Watch the baby animals as you read this beautiful, simple poem of wonder and springtime awe. The accompanying wildlife photographs are outstanding.

Animal Ark Celebrating Our Wild World in Poetry and Pictures by Kwame Alexander, photos by Joel Sartore (ages 4 – 8)
I immediately thought of so many classroom applications for this gorgeous photographic poetry book about animals. Alexander writes about each animal or animal grouping in evocative haikus with jaw-dropping photographs taken by Joel Sartore. For a dramatically angled fruit bat on a black background, Alexnder writes “wings like a cape / ready for flight / into the sweet, dark night” then later “a hundred feet / walking without a sound / one direction” is the text describing a gigantic 2-page photograph of an Asian millipede. Teachers, can you imagine using the photos as writing prompts for students’ own haikus? And how this could spark discussion and research on the animals shown?!

Anywhere Farm by Phyllis Root, illustrated by G. Brian Karas (ages 4 – 8)

Where can you plant an anywhere farm? This book explores the many possibilities: in a bucket, a bin, or a window, a crate, a cup or a balcony, and more. What can you plant? Who might come to visit? (Think birds and bugs.) And how do you start? You just need one farmer (that’s you,) and one little seed. Perhaps this book will inspire a spring garden or two!

Bee and Me by Alison Jay (ages 4 – 8)

So much is said in this beautiful wordless picture book about a girl who befriends a bee. She and her bee friend spread pollen for beautiful flowers around the city so that even when the bee must leave, the girl can always remember her friend through the flowers. Use this to start a discussion about bees and what they do for the world.