Plantastic Prose: 25 Books About Plants for Little Green Thumbs
After you used the best house plant books to fill your dwelling with beautiful succulents and a few bonsai, we are sure the tiny tots in your life soon became your best assistant gardeners. Continue cultivating your mini horticulturist’s desire to turn every room they enter into their personal forest or botanical garden with our round up of fiction and nonfiction kids books about plants.
Poems About Plants
A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year edited by Jane McMorland Hunter
Celebrate nature every day with 365 of literature’s most beautiful poems including Thomas Hardy’s “Birds at Winter Nightfall,” Robert Frost’s “Spring Pools,” Rudyard Kipling’s “The Glory of the Garden,” and Elizabeth Jenning’s “Song at the Beginning of Autumn,” along with 12 accompanying black and white line drawings.
A Year of Nature Poems by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Kelly Louise Judd
See how animals interact with nature and the cycle of trees and plants from the stark winter to the first buds of spring in 12 poems that celebrate nature all year round.
Picture Books About Plants
Flowers Are Calling by Rita Gray, illustrated by Kenard Pak
The flowers are calling all the animals of the forest to drink their delicious nectar, but it is nature’s pollinators that feast in this picture book with beautiful words and luminous artwork. Flowers Are Calling reveals how plants, animals, and insects each play their part in the forest’s circle of life.
Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak
Join a girl walking through the forest, greeting the signs of the changing seasons. As the trees sway in the breeze and their leaves change color, our young traveler bids farewell to summer and welcomes autumn. Keep the adventures with nature going with Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter, where a pair of siblings welcome the first snow of winter while taking a stroll through their town. Complete the season with Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring, where a boy and his dog explore nature during a countryside stroll as they say goodbye to the bleakness of winter and welcome the lushness of spring.
If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson
A mouse and rabbit plant a seed and rejoice over the resulting garden. Birds arrive ready to enjoy some of the garden’s bounty, but the mouse and rabbit refuse to share. Will everyone be able to stop fighting and come together to enjoy the garden?
The Little Tree by Muon Thi Van, illustrated by JoAnn Adinolfi
The Little Tree worries how life will be for her Little Seed as the surrounding world begins to narrow. Although The Little Tree wants to keep a tighter hold, she decides to take the biggest risk of all, and let Little Seed go to find a richer life on her own.
Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life by Molly Bang, illustrated by Penny Chisholm
Tackling a complicated scientific subject and narrated by the Sun, Living Sunlight explains the process of photosynthesis at the molecular level and why it is important to Planet Earth and all its living beings. Although some of the content may be difficult for younger readers to understand, the illustrations are guaranteed to keep their attention.
Penguin and Pinecone by Salina Yoon
When a curious Penguin finds a pinecone in the snow, they form an extraordinary friendship, but Grandpa reminds Penguin that pinecones belong in the warmth of the forest. Can Penguin help Pinecone find their way home? Can Penguin and Pinecone stay friends when they are miles apart?
Plant a Pocket of Prairie by Phyllis Root, illustrated by Betsy Bowen
Although the book focuses on the prairies of Minnesota, plants lovers everywhere will be inspired by the book’s message of preserving habitats and growing locally adapted plants.
Planting the Wild Garden by Kathryn O. Galbraith, illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin
This story starts with various characters planting seeds that will soon disperse to unknown places. Readers learn how various elements of nature like wind, rain, animals, and insects take those seeds to different and unexpected places.
Plants Can’t Sit Still by Rebecca E. Hirsch, illustrated by Mia Posada
Future horticulturists may be surprised by all the ways plants move! Although they don’t walk around like people and animals, plants and especially their seeds move. Discover the daily activity of plants in this fascinating and educational picture book.
Redwoods by Jason Chin
Fact and fiction blend beautifully in this story of a young boy who takes an ordinary train ride that leads him to the great ancient redwood forests.
Nonfiction Books About Plants
Dream Plants for the Natural Garden by Piet Oudolf and Henk Gerritsen
With expert advice from two of the world’s most influential garden designers, amateur gardeners can discover the plants that require little tending and don’t need artificial fertilizers and pesticides in order to become bountiful blooms. Dream Plants includes full descriptions of over 1000 plants used by top gardeners, along with easy to follow growing instructions.
Easy Peasy: Gardening for Kids by Kirsten Bradley
Tiny gardeners can use Easy Peasy as an introduction for growing anything everywhere and anywhere. Whether you live in the city or the country, you can bring nature into your home with pots, balcony boxes, and bird feeders. Included activities help kids and their families create living, renewable, and sustainable environments.
How a Seed Grows by Helene J. Jordan
Follow the path of acorn as it starts from a small seed and grows into a mighty oak tree. How a Seed Grows provides simple explanations of complex scientific concepts for young plant lovers with the help of beautiful watercolor illustrations.
Plant: Exploring the Botanical World by Phaidon
Plant is one of the must-read books about plants for gardeners who love art and art enthusiasts with a green thumb, featuring 300 beautiful botanically themed images from celebrated artists, scientists, and photographers along with previously unpublished images.
Seeds by Vijaya Khisty Bodach
What are seeds? How do seeds spread? How do seeds grow? Learn the cycle of plants making seeds and seeds growing into new plants in this book that introduces young readers to the basics of seed science. Seeds is the perfect companion for the other Plant Parts books: Roots, Stems, Flowers, and Leaves.
Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness by Qing Li
Shinrin-Yoku translates to forest bathing and is the Japanese practice of spending time in the forest for better health, happiness, and a sense of calm. Young tree huggers can embrace this pillar of Japanese culture of reconnecting with nature using practical methods presented by forest medicine expert Dr. Qing Li.
Fictional Books About Plants
The End of the Wild by Nicole Helget
The pristine forest bordering Fern’s home is not only her family’s main source for food, it is Fern’s refuge from the responsibilities of caring for her rambunctious younger siblings and her stepfather who is dealing with PTSD. When a fracking company comes to town, Fern quickly realizes her special grove could soon be gone, but no one else seems to care.
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
Calpurnia Virginia Tate enjoys exploring the natural world around her with her cantankerous and avid naturalist grandfather. In the first book of the series, Calpurnia discovers why the yellow grasshoppers in her backyard are bigger than the green ones.
Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke (Author), Alex Campbell (Colorist), and Hilary Sycamore (Colorist)
Jack might be the only kid in the world who dreads summer, because summer is when his single mom takes a second job and Jack is left to watch his younger sister Maddy. It’s a lot of responsibility, and it’s boring because Maddy doesn’t talk, but one day Maddy does talk. At the flea market, Maddy tells Jack to trade their mom’s car for a box of mysterious seeds. It’s the best mistake Jack has ever made.
Pilu of the Woods by Mai K. Nguyen
Willow loves the woods near her house because they are calm, quiet, and different from her own turbulent emotions. When Willow’s emotions get the better of her, she decides to run away into the woods. There, she meets Pilu, a lost tree spirit who can’t find her way back home. Willow offers to help Pilu, and they quickly become friends.
The Science of Breakable Things by Tae Keller
Natalie wants to use the prize money from the egg drop competition to take her mother to see the Cobalt Blue Orchids, the flowers that survive against impossible odds. Her mother is suffering from depression, and Natalie hopes these magical flowers inspire her mother to love life again.
The Year of the Garden by Andrea Cheng, illustrated by Patrice Barton
When Anna receives a copy of The Secret Garden, she is inspired to follow her dreams to to plant ivy and purple crocuses, but what grows from her dream garden is even better: Friendship!
Zoe in Wonderland by Brenda Woods
Zoe Reindeer loves spending time at the family business, Doc Reindeer’s Exotic Plant Wonderland, and hanging out with her best friend Q. When Q moves away, Zoe doesn’t know what she’ll do without him…until an astronomer from Madagascar comes to the nursery looking for a Baobab tree.
Now that you’ve delighted your little foliage fan with the most unbe-leaf-able books about plants…Let’s keep our bookish bond with nature going, but maybe stay away from the killer plants.
