Re(ad)wild for Earth Day (and Every Day)! Part 2

So, in my last post, I covered rewilding and biodiversity and suggested a fun Earth Day or more generally spring activity. Rewilding and biodiversity are big themes in The Wall and the Wild, in which Ana, who wants a perfect garden, learns that she might be going about the process in some harmful ways. She's looking a little frustrated below.

If you love Ana and the Wild, or just want to read some fun, whimsical, informative, and gorgeous picture books about these themes, you might want to check out the following and read-wild. You might notice some similarities here ...

First up is an oldish favorite of ours: The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown.

Find out what happens when a boy named Liam stumbles on a struggling garden in a gray urban landscape and decides to take care of it.

Next up is another favorite: The Wild, by Yuval Zommer.

See what happens when the Wild gives and gives and people take and take ... and then give back. (And really, we adore and recommend anything by this earth-friendly author-illustrator.)

This next one aligns pretty closely with Ana's story but approaches the idea from a community-wide perspective: The Wild Garden, by Cynthia Cliff. How do people in a village who want to extend their cultivated garden into the Wild compromise with folks already living in and tending those natural spaces? There's even a wall (but not for long)!

This one's a little more instructive in terms of how to rewild a backyard garden but beautifully illustrated, kid-friendly, and fun: Our Wild Garden, by Daniel Seton and Pieter Fannes. Also, I love the magpie ...

Next up, a picture book that touches on a favorite question of mine: What makes a weed? And why should we not be so quick to pull (another lesson learned by Ana): The Weedy Garden: A Happy Habitat for Wild Friends, by Margaret Renkl and Billy Renkl.

Another favorite picture book along those lines shows what can happen when unwanted things keep popping up anyways ... and spread: Weeds Find a Way, by Cindy Jenson-Elliott and Carolyn Fisher.

This next lyrical picture book isn't so much about rewilding as about recognizing and enjoying the Wild, but we love it, so I had to include it: Finding Wild, by Megan Wagner Lloyd and

Abigail Halpin.

Following on that idea, this next book introduces a young girl who moves to a big city and mourns the loss of her wild spaces, until she finds that the Wild likes to crop up ... everywhere: Wild Everywhere, by Katya Balen and Gill Smith.

When We Went Wild, by Isabella Tree, explores what happens when farmers notice the absence of wildlife and the struggle of their land, and decides to try some new (old) things.

Zonia's Rain Forest, by Juana Martinez-Neal, provides a more global perspective on the hazards of losing our biodiversity. Plus, it's just one of the most beautiful picture books ...

The penultimate book on my list also offers global insight and is one of our favorite picture book biographies: The Boy Who Grew a Forest: The True Story of Jadav Payeng, by Sophia Gholz and Kayla Harren. It's just stunning.

Which brings me to the final book, a lovely lyrical nonfiction picture book that explores the many ways seeds are distributed and wild gardens grow: Planting the Wild Garden, by Kathryn O. Galbraith and Wendy Anderson Halperin.

That's enough to get you started, right? If not, check out some other wonderful book recommendations about seeds, plants, gardens, and environmental health from my local library:

Grow a Reader: Seeds and Plants!

You can find some more wonderful Earth Day (environmentally themed) reads here:

Imagination Soup's Best Earth Day Children’s Books

Finally, I'm also a historian who loves getting lost in old books and primary sources. I stumbled on this one, The Wild Garden, by W. Robinson, published in 1883, and had to share. The illustrations are just fabulous! I'm hoping to dig into it more later.

In the meantime, have a wonderful belated Earth Day, and if you want to buy these or any other books, celebrate Indie Bookstore Day by shopping your local independent bookstore or visiting Bookshop.org to order online from indie sellers! Yay, bookstores!

Also, I loaded all the books listed here as well as some more related to rewilding, for kids of all ages, on my Bookshop.org site:

You can also find some great books about trees here to celebrate Arbor Day, which just passed as well, but hey, every day is a day to celebrate trees!