Great Nature Books for Your Spring Library List
Nature study isn’t just for the littles! Greener pages inspire greener pastures for middle and high school homeschoolers, too. These nature books will make you want to head outdoors, whether you’re looking for a new project to take on or just for a little motivation to make nature time part of your everyday routine.
THE STICK BOOK: LOADS OF THINGS YOU CAN MAKE OR DO WITH A STICK by Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield
Who knew a stick had so much potential? This book makes it clear why the humble stick was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame and gives kids lots of ideas for creative outdoor play. Tweens and teens can challenge each other to craft the best stick-based creations.
THE KIDS’ OUTDOOR ADVENTURE BOOK by Stacy Tornio and Ken Keffer
There are 448 ideas for playing outside in all seasons in this handy tome — that’s more than one idea for every day of the year. Kids will enjoy this book, but it’s also a good pick for parents who aren’t sure how to help their children ease into free play or make the transition from little kid outdoor to adventure to big kid outdoor fun.
OWL MOON by Jane Yolen
Your kids will want to take a nighttime owl walk after reading this poetic story about a child’s owling adventure with her father. A lot of us start to phase out these kinds of activities as kids get older, but this is actually the time when these activities can be the most magical.
AN EGG IS QUIET by Dianna Hutts Aston
An egg may not have a voice, but it’s still pretty interesting — a fact that this gorgeously illustrated picture book makes clear as it introduces readers to more than 60 different eggs, from fossilized dinosaur eggs to tubular dogfish eggs to giant ostrich eggs. If you’re studying biology, this is a fun springtime surprise to pull out for older students.
THE NATURE CONNECTION: AN OUTDOOR WORKBOOK FOR KIDS, FAMILIES AND CLASSROOM by Clare Walker Leslie
Clare Walker Leslie’s book about nature journaling changed the way I look at the natural world forever, and her follow-up guide, full of activities and ideas for experiencing and exploring nature with your family, is a must-have. I used this book when my kids were little and pulled it out on a whim when the oldest was finishing up middle school — it was like an entirely new book! Definitely worth revisiting even if you used it for elementary homeschool nature study.
SWIRL BY SWIRL: SPIRALS IN NATURE by Joyce Sidman
A Newberry Honor poet and Caldecott medalist illustrator team up for this beautiful book about spirals in nature. This is a great book to inspire kids to look for shapes and patterns in the natural world and to get creative with how they think about nature study.
DIARY OF A CITIZEN SCIENTIST: CHASING TIGER BEETLES AND OTHER NEW WAYS OF ENGAGING THE WORLD by Sharman Apt Russell
Citizen science has big appeal for kids who want to be a part of something bigger, and this book, from a non-professional science fan who stalks tiger beetles, catalogs galaxies, and participates in other citizen science projects, makes an engaging read for older kids. (Bonus: You can find tons of citizen science projects to participate in if you’re feeling inspired.)
THE SENSE OF WONDER by Rachel Carson
Carson’s book, published in 1956, is hauntingly prescient, reflecting the importance of nature through a series of everyday outdoor experiences with her nephew along the Maine coast. This is a great book for reminding tweens and teens that their nature observations are part of bigger way of experiencing the world.
ALL THE WILD WONDERS: POEMS OF OUR EARTH edited by Wendy Cooling
Delicate watercolor paintings accompany nature poems by Christina Rossetti, Ogden Nash, John Agard, Thomas Hardy, and more. Kids who prefer writing to hiking may find that nature-inspired poetry is the perfect way to make outdoor time feel inspiring.
WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Thoreau’s classic work about the importance of living a life connected to the natural world still resonates today, and teen readers will probably be both inspired by Thoreau’s ideas about a “simple” life and ready to critique some of the class and gender dynamics that are happening behind the scenes of that simple life.
THE CLOUDSPOTTER’S GUIDE: THE SCIENCE, HISTORY, AND CULTURE OF CLOUDS by Gavin Pretor-Pinney
Learn more about morning glory, cumulus, nimbostratus, and all those other clouds in this odd but awesome little book about the science, history, art, and pop culture significance of clouds. We spent hours making cloud charts and painting clouds in our high school nature study, and it was a welcome, meditative moment we looked forward to in our busy homeschool routine.
THE KID’S BOOK OF WEATHER FORECASTING: BUILD A WEATHER STATION, ‘READ THE SKY,’ AND MAKE PREDICTIONS! by Mark Breen and Kathleen Friestad
Who needs a weather unit study when you can build your own weather machine in the backyard? We tested this book out in elementary school, but my daughter was really too young to take ownership of the projects. Middle school proved to be perfect timing for us.
ROOTS, SHOOTS, BUCKETS & BOOTS: GARDENING TOGETHER WITH CHILDREN by Shannon Lovejoy
Lovejoy’s mix of practical information (you can start a garden with your kids using the information in this book) and inspiration (including a moon garden of night-blooming flowers) makes this an ideal volume for would-be gardeners of all ages.
TAKE A BACKYARD BIRD WALK by Jane Kirkland
Part of the Take a Walk series, this practical and engaging book helps kids develop the skills they need to notice and identify birds in their own neighborhoods. If you are just getting started with birdwatching, it’s not too late! And books like this make it much easier to let your tweens and teens lead the way.
A SEED IS SLEEPY by Dianna Hutts Aston
Sylvia Long’s accurate, detailed illustrations are a big part of what makes this book such a great addition to your nature library. Kids will learn about all kinds of seeds, from the ones light enough to float on the breeze to ones that can weigh up to 60 pounds. I think this would be a great book to include as part of a middle grades botany unit.
AND THEN IT’S SPRING by Julie Fogliano
Waiting and watching for signs of spring can sometimes feel like an endless process, a fact that Fogliano beautifully captures in this simple story. We read this book out loud every year when we’re on the lookout for those first indicators that winter is on the way out.
WHAT THE ROBIN KNOWS: HOW BIRDS REVEAL THE SECRETS OF THE NATURAL WORLD by Jon Young
A naturalist explores the language of birdsong in this book that manages to be both thoughtful and practical advice for birders. This is the kind of book that appeals to kids who explore their world like nature detectives, putting together clues and making deductions about how the world works.
SPRING: AN ANTHOLOGY FOR THE CHANGING SEASONS edited by Melissa Harrison
This tribute to British springtime includes spring-themed writings by Chaucer, Orwell, Hopkins, Larkin, and more. It’s a great gateway to comparative literature, exploring tone and mood, or digging into creating setting in literature — and it’s fun to read, too.
A Note About Affiliate Links on HSL: HSL earns most of our income through subscriptions. (Thanks, subscribers!) We are also Amazon affiliates, which means that if you click through a link on a book or movie recommendation and end up purchasing something, we may get a small percentage of the sale. (This doesn’t affect the price you pay.) We use this money to pay for photos and web hosting. We use these links only if they match up to something we’re recommending anyway — they don’t influence our coverage. You can learn more about how we use affiliate links here.