Earth Day, observed on April 22 each year, was established in 1970—which surely feels like ancient history to today’s teens. Yet concern for the environment, the catalyst for its founding, feels timelier than ever. Even as pollution and climate change–induced disasters affect ever more people and habitats, the U.S. government is actively hindering progress toward a cleaner, healthier, more sustainable future. When we choose books about the environment for young people, we need to include titles that validate the urgency of their legitimate concerns as well as ones that offer a genuine sense of hope and celebrate a love for nature. Dismissing well-founded worries is infantilizing, but too much terror can contribute to overwhelming eco-anxiety. The books below, taken together, offer a balanced variety of voices and approaches.
Two intriguing works introduce readers to women who had an impact on our understanding of the natural world, but whose names are likely unfamiliar:
Historian of photography Corey Keller presents a concise, visually arresting biography of an Englishwoman who defied gender norms to pursue botany. Anna Atkins: Photographer, Naturalist, Innovator (Getty Publications, 2025) thoughtfully presents its subject’s impact within the wider context of 19th-century science and society.
In her accessible, welcoming historical novel in verse, Footeprint: Eunice Newton Foote at the Dawn of Climate Science and Women’s Rights (Charlesbridge Teen, Feb. 10), Lindsay H. Metcalf introduces a New York farm girl who grew up to do remarkable research on greenhouse gases but who was long denied credit for her pivotal 1856 study, due to entrenched sexism.
The following volumes offer inspiration in the form of short stories and poems that act as creative prompts, discussion starters, and more:
A rich variety of voices, including Rin Chupeco, Kim Johnson, and Jeff Zentner, appears in Onward: 16 Climate Fiction Short Stories To Inspire Hope, edited by Nora Shalaway Carpenter (Charlesbridge Teen, Feb. 24). Spanning multiple genres and subjects, the diverse entries share a focus on maintaining “psychological resilience and emotional well-being.”
Nature Poems To See By: A Comic Artist Interprets More Great Poems by Julian Peters (Plough, March 24) takes a highly original approach that will appeal to a wide range of readers, including lovers of traditional poetry and graphic novel aficionados alike. Peters’ visual renditions add fresh emotion and life to his selected verses.
These novels—both of them engaging but dramatically different in tone—center on teenagers navigating worlds in which adults’ actions have a negative impact on their communities:
In The Danger of Small Things (Atheneum, March 24), Caryl Lewis draws a powerful connection between patriarchal oppression and a dystopian society’s misogyny, environmental devastation, and repressive control over artistic expression. In a terrifying world where honeybees are extinct, girls are forced to pollinate crops using the paintbrushes no longer permitted for artmaking.
In his light and funny sophomore novel, Lying, Stealing, and Other Ways To Save the Planet (Annick Press, May 5), Curtis Campbell introduces a rural gay teen who resorts to questionable means to try to block construction that would destroy the habitat of an endangered woodpecker species.
Laura Simeon is a young readers’ editor.
