Earth Day is on April 22 and it’s a perfect day to talk more about the Earth and show our children the importance of keeping it clean. I love using eco-friendly books to help my children understand that the little, everyday things that we do each day – such as recycling our trash, turning off lights in a room when it’s not needed, takings shorter showers – can help make a big difference for everyone!
Books are such a fun and easy way to get messages like these across to our children and for Earth Day, these are our favorite children’s books from Candlewick Press! I’m sure your kids will enjoy them as much as we did! And even sweeter, you’ll get a chance to own all of these books too – with a fabulous giveaway! Read on…
Stories from Bug Garden
By Lisa Moser, illustrated by Gwen Millward
HC: 9780763665340 ∙ March 2016 ∙ $16.99 ∙ 32 pages ∙ Ages 4-8
What may appear to be an abandoned garden is actually home to an unusual array of insects. Meet a ladybug who prefers making mud angels to acting like a lady, a roly-poly bug who loves to roll (“wa-hoo!”), a cricket who dreams of grand adventures, and a whole neighborhood of bugs gazing up at a fireworks show of flowers bursting into bloom. These inviting vignettes are sure to have readers seeing bugs in a whole new light.
« “The scribbly pen-and-pencil illustrations, finished with watercolor, reveal amusing detail…With plentiful dialogue, these short scenes will be fun to read aloud. Whimsical and delightful, a celebration of imagination.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Otters Love to Play
By Jonathan London, illustrated by Meilo So
HC: 9780763669133 ∙ March 2016 ∙ $16.99 ∙ 32 pages ∙ Ages 5-8
It’s spring, and a litter of baby river otters emerges from a den . . . to play! Follow the otters through the seasons as they chase one another, slide down a mudbank, jump in a pile of leaves, and learn to swim. Even while catching fish for their dinner or grooming themselves in the snow, otters love to play — and Jonathan London’s lively text and Meilo So’s fluid watercolors invite you to share in the joy.
« “Fun and informative, this beautifully illustrated, strong narrative belongs in every collection.” – School Library Journal (starred review)
Fabulous Frogs
By Martin Jenkins, illustrated by Tim Hopgood
HC: 9780763681005 ∙ February 2016 ∙ $16.99 ∙ 32 pages ∙ Ages 5-8
Huge frogs, tiny frogs, hairy frogs, and flying frogs hop through the pages of this colorful nonfiction book. Discover the Goliath frog, biggest in the world, and the Darwin’s frog, which has a pointy nose and holds its tadpoles in its mouth until they are big enough to care for themselves. Learn why some frogs are brightly colored, and which one can bury itself in the desert until rain comes. Curious minds will jump at the chance to explore all kinds of frogs, from the most exotic to the greenish-brown specimens in their own backyards.
“Unique to Jenkins and Hopgood’s collaboration is the book’s design. Wonderfully sprinkled throughout, Hopgood’s vibrant, eye-catching mixed-media renditions of frogs in mottled, earthy hues aptly complement Jenkins’ accompanying narrative. Ideal for a wide range of early elementary students.” – Booklist
Counting Lions: Portraits from the Wild
By Katie Cotton, illustrated by Stephen Walton
HC: 9780763682071 ∙ October 2015 ∙ $22.00 ∙ 40 pages ∙ Ages 0 mos and up
Exquisite charcoal drawings of ten endangered creatures—lions, elephants, giraffes, pandas, tigers, chimpanzees, penguins, turtles, macaws, and zebras—startle the viewer with their size and astonishing detail. A poetic text notes each creature’s particular qualities and behavior, while providing a quiet counting exercise and a reminder that these animals must be cherished and protected.
« “Arresting charcoal portraits of endangered animals, drawn in near-photographic detail, command attention in this counting book…Endnotes offering information about the animals and their endangered statuses conclude this powerful tribute to vulnerable creatures.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Welcome to the Neighborwood
Written and illustrated by Shawn Sheehy
HC: 9780763665944 ∙ March 2015 ∙ $29.99 ∙ 18 pages ∙ Ages 4-8
At the edge of the forest a spider spins her web, while nearby, a hummingbird uses strands of spider silk to build her nest. These are just two of the many animals who live side by side, sharing the resources they need to construct homes, traps, or places to store food. From award-winning artist Shawn Sheehy comes an up-close look at the architectural masterpieces of the animal world, featuring an array of beautiful, lifelike pop-ups originally crafted with handmade paper. The earthy exploration culminates in a breathtaking final spread showing all the neighborwood creatures together.
« “Sheehy makes an impressive children’s book debut, using dramatically unfolding pop-ups to introduce seven woodland animals with special construction skills of their own…. A visually striking and enriching overview of animals living independently and as part of an ecosystem.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Platypus
By Sue Whiting, illustrated by Mark Jackson
HC: 9780763680985 ∙ February 2016 ∙ $16.99 ∙ 32 pages ∙ Ages 5-9
There it is, a giant duckbill emerging from a burrow. But this animal has fur — and walks low to the ground, with claws and a wide, flat tail like a beaver. When it swims, it looks like a miniature crocodile, and when faced with threats, it keeps its snakelike venom at the ready. And did you know that the female platypus lays eggs? Follow a most unusual mammal as it leaves its home and travels through the night, gliding past wallabies and evading a hungry fox — hurrying, scurrying, always busy, always looking for a meal!
“Whiting’s storytelling is a beautiful combination of rich descriptions and a recurring reminder of the key characteristics of a platypus, all of which gently ebbs and flows with Jackson’s soothing mixed-media illustrations…definitely an engaging and enlightening read.” – Booklist
Where’s the Elephant?
Written and illustrated by Stephane-Yves Barroux
HC: 9780763681104 ∙ March 2016 ∙ $14.99 ∙ 32 pages ∙ Ages 3-7
Where’s the elephant? Where’s the parrot? Where’s the snake? And wait a minute — where are all the trees? Where will the elephant, parrot, and snake go now? A vibrant landscape in flux with three hidden animals on each spread offers parents and children an opportunity to talk about urban development and animal habitats.
“With minimal text and bright, bold illustrations, Barroux introduces children to the topic of deforestation in a poignant fashion that invites discussion…Each spread is full of stunning art, with the lushness of the diverse tropical leaves set against the increasingly uniform and stagnant buildings.” – School Library Journal
All these books are available for purchase at Candlewick.com, on Amazon or at your nearest book retailer!
WIN IT!
Lucky you, my loyal Hip Mama’s Place readers! One of you will win a set of all seven (7) children’s books geared for Earth Day from Candlewick Press- valued @ $135.00! Go enter and good luck!
To enter this giveaway contest, just follow the Rafflecopter entry link below. This giveaway contest is open to U.S. and Canada 18+ only. One entry per household, per IP address. Void where prohibited. I will pick and notify the winner by email after 04/22/16 at 11:59 PM, EST.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
GREEN YOUR ROUTINE GIVEAWAY HOP!
And to celebrate even further, I am partnering with some of my blogger friends to bring you all these fantastic, eco-friendly giveaways!
Welcome to the Green Your Routine Giveaway Hop hosted by Lindsey Blogs and Viva Veltoro! We’re encouraging everyone to green their routine and help make the world a little more eco friendly with great giveaways! You’ll have until Earth Day to enter all of the great green giveaways, in the linky below, and don’t miss the two amazing Grand Prizes from our hosts!
*Check out all the other fun Earth Day-themed giveaways from my fantastic blogger friends!
Below this post, you’ll find all the links of blogs who are participating in this exciting Earth Day-themed giveaway event – including Hip Mama’s Place! Each blog listed below will have a Earth Day-themed giveaway in store for you all, so go visit each blog and enter for your chance to win! And don’t miss out on the two amazing Grand Prizes from our hosts!
Disclosure for Candlewick Press books review and giveaway: I received the featured books from Candlewick Press to facilitate my review. Prize fulfillment will be provided by Candlewick Press. All views and opinions are my own.
Disclosure for all other giveaways on the 4th Annual Showered With Love Event: Hip Mama’s Place, Lindsey Blogs at SEBG, Viva Veltoro, and the Green Your Routine participating bloggers are not responsible for sponsors who do not fulfill prize obligations.
Go enter some more fun Earth Day-themed giveaways from these awesome bloggers!
A former school teacher, Jocelyn Brown created Hip Mama’s Place in 2007. Her motto for this blog is: get inspired, create and share! Jocelyn loves sharing about food and recipes, crafts, DIY projects and her random travels with her family. She also loves all things social media, but her latest obsession is Instagram.
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Earth Day is important as a reminder to take care of the Earth. I have 4 grand kids I am trying to teach this.
What a great set of books. Our family loves nature , wildlife and animals. We’ve started composting as a family and we’ll be planting our garden this weekend.
These look absolutely lovely!! Id love them for my kids! Candlewick press is a great publisher
I like Candlewick Press. I enjoy their books. This is a very nice group of books included in this giveaway. Our family recycles everything that we can. We conserve water. Earth Day means being thankful and mindful of the earth’s resources.
I love the titles chosen for this giveaway. The Earth is a sacred place and my husband and I are teaching our children to think that too. We are showing them how to grow plants from seed and to love and respect animals. Earth Day is very important to us.
These books sound wonderful and they have beautiful illustrations. It’s important for children to know that they are responsible for taking good care of their environment. The Earth is so important to us. Im trying to instill recycling, reusing and replenishing our resources in my children at a young age.
As a teacher my students would love these books, I feel it’s important to teach my students about the importance of earth day for their future.
Earth Day is an important day for us. My daughter is at the perfect age to start teaching her what Earth Day is all about. I think this selection of books is wonderful! Otters Love to Play looks particularly adorable.
Earth Day is important in our family because we really care about our planet and our environment. We have our own chickens for eggs and grow a vegetable garden every year.
Candlewick is a fabulous book publisher for children’s and youngsters books.This selection of Earthday themed books looks as though it would enlighten and engage children educating them to the wonders of Earth’s creatures. Earthday was never a special day to us. We have always respected and valued the Earth that God created and allowed man to inhabit.
These books are very cute and have great information in them! Earth Day is so important for me because it is a great reminder to my daughter on why we need to take such good care of our environment.
I w ould want to read this book to my grandson first; Welcome to the Neighborwood-
To us Earth Day is a day to remember to be good stewards to this planet that God blessed us with. 🙂
These books look really great. We do a lot around house to help out the earth. We cloth diaper, we recycle, we try to use the least amount of chemicals on everything.
books with animals are her fav and I love reading them with her. these all look so fabulous. great way to tie earth day in with our eco systems for a little one!
I like the variety of the books on the Earth Day list, from gardens to animals it all covered.The importance of Earth Day to my family and myself is I want the Earth and it animals to be there for my children and great great grandchildren to enjoy.
We try to live every day like it’s earth day. These books are great, we love seeing wildlife in the wild and talk about wild animals and why we need to protect the planet so they can continue living in their proper habitats.
I love “Welcome to the Neighborwood”! My local public library has it and I’ve been longing to get a copy for our house. I love how interactive it is and have different things that kids of all different ages will find engaging.
The Counting Lions book looks great! The whole selection looks great for a wide variety of age groups! I always try to keep my kids outside a ton and Earth Day our town always has awesome activities and I love keeping them involved!
I love the choices of books! We are all about earth friendly products, and we want to teach our kids all the great things about the earth as they grow up!
What a great list of books and a great way for my grandchildren to learn about how animals and bugs are important to our environment. My daughter grew up with lots of pets and wildlife around her to learn and enjoy from. From watching beavers build their dens to wild turkeys in our back yard, she had grown up loving and learning from the outdoors and now can pass it on to her children.
These books are lovely. I love when illustrations meet a great theme for a children’s book. I especially love the look of “Platypus”- the pages are gorgeous!
My family lives in Southern California where we get to see the beauty of this planet alongside its destruction. We love the outdoors and I love teaching our two year old about respecting nature and how to lessen our footprint. I know even young children can understand some simple principles that help keep our world healthy.
The book that is most exciting to me is the Stories from Bug Garden. When I was a kid I was always playing in the dirt and making friends with the bugs! All of the books look like wonderful books I would love to share with my 3 year old daughter. Earth day is really important to me because I am somewhat of an advocate for global warming awareness. In college I did a presentation about Earth Day and it’s political significance in history. The Earth is so precious and there are so many things we can change in our daily lives to lower our carbon footprint and save the Earth! 🙂
Earth Day is important because its important to take care of the Earth so that its still capable of supporting life for future generations.
Earth Day is a great time to remember and talk about how important it is for us to care for and improve our earth.
These books look fabulous to read to my grandsons to help teach them about the beauty of Earth and all of the creatures that live on Earth. Earth Day is important to me and my family because we want to protect the beautiful Earth we live on.
We try to teach our grandson to respect the Earth and he is very interested in all the various forms of life on Earth these books are great!
Earth Day is so important to teach our younger generation the importance of caring for our animals and our planet. These books are beautifully illustrated and would be a joy to read to our grandchildren.
my grandchildren love mother earth and being outside and enjoying the plants and flowers,they love planting in the flower garden and veggie garden with me,they think its fun
I love the selection of books. Earth Day is every day for my family and I. We strive to live/leave a small foot print.
Earth Day is a good reminder to help instill in our kids the importance of respecting and caring for our planet. We plan to participate in a neighborhood pickup this year.
“Where’s the Elephant” written and illustrated by Stephane-Yves Barroux looks like something my granddaughter would love as she adores elephants. We celebrate Earth Day by planting trees in our community through the Girl Scouts. We planted twenty trees last year!
Our city gives out free trees on Earth Day (like many cities), so we have a perfect opportunity to talk about how planting trees and keeping the earth clean helps us and future generations whenever we get a new tree to plant. It’s also great family time!
Some of the covers have amazing art, I can’t wait to read them. I teach kindergarten and talk alot about how to take care of earth, we always plant something this day as well.
Earth Day is a time where we cab do something to give back to the place we all live. Teaching our children is the best thing we can do. We humans have left too big of a footprint. Maybe the next generation will be smarter.
I love the collection that you have here, Its great that I came across this because I just had a big planting party at my place with all of my 9 grandchildren, I wanted to teach them why we plant and the purpose of doing so. I hope I was able to answer a few of their ?s I know they enjoyed! planting today..
@tisonlyme143
Earth Day is important because we need to teach our children and grandchildren how important it is to conserve our resources. That means recycling, reusing, and being very careful with what is in our world. We want to have fresh water, beautiful trees and all the animals that are present now.
I like the animal theme of the books from Candlewick Press. Earth Day is important because it teaches kids how to conserve our natural resources and help the environment, animals and ourselves.
I love that the selection of books includes various environments (woodlands, savannah, wetlands, etc.) and animals not often seen in children’s literature, such as otters and platypus. I think it is so important to teach the next generation about the full variety and diversity of life on earth, and I am glad that Candlewick agrees.
These look like great books to read to our children to teach them about the environment. We need to take care of our earth for future generations.
The Earth Day Children’s Books from Candlewick Press are a wonderful way to introduce children to the importance of conserving resources, nature, and the animals. Celebrating Earth Day gives us the opportunity show our children how we can all participate by doing our part in preserving the earth for the next generation. Each and everyone of us needs to recycle, conserve, repair and restore on a daily basis.
I think the variety of books all dealing with our beautiful earth and taking care of all in it is a great message to give my grandsons. The importance is to talk about it often/daily with the kids so they are aware and learn from, a young age the importance of it.
My daughter loves books! These books look so unique and have amazing and fun artwork! Earth Day, to us, provides an opportunity to remind us that we need to appreciate the world around us. This time last year, we started using cloth diapers to help our earth. This year, we have made an effort to recycle, especially cardboard, because we actually have to drive them to a recycle facility. Our area isn’t very good about recycling, since it is a rural area, but we do what we can. We also purchase items from thrift stores and use re-usable storage containers in the kitchen. Little things add up.
Earth Day means recognizing the importance of conserving our resources and celebrating the beauty of our surroundings.
These books are important because they are very educational for our children
Earth Day is a great day to talk about and enjoy animals, nature and conservation. The choice of books seems great as our family loves otters, platypus and the lovely green fabulous frogs!
I think that it’s very important to expose children to animals and nature so that they grow an appreciation and respect for their environment around them. Where I live, there are special events and walks around Earth day and my family and go out to the park. I’m happy that Candlewick Press publishes books like these for children with more realistic depictions of animals.
These books sound amazing!! What beautiful illustrations!! The Earth is so important to us!! Im trying to instill recycling, reusing and replenishing our resources in my son at a young age!! Its saddens me what a wasteful culture we have become!! I hope he never grows to be that way!! I can’t wait to start planting and shopping at our local farmers market this year!!
We care about the earth and the environment in our family, but I can’t say that “Earth Day” specifically is very important to us. Unless we happen on an event I usually don’t realize when it is.
I love the selection of books from Candlewick press…they look like beautiful books I’d like to read to my children.
Earth Day is important because it reminds us that we need to keep our world and environment healthy. It’s also important because it teaches kids the importance of nature. I love all of these books! The illustrations look amazing!