The Best Outdoorsy Children’s Books
Reading and the outdoors are an excellent pair. We’ve put together a post all about some of our favorite outdoorsy children’s books. Read them inside or outside, either way they should spark a love for nature and exploring the great outdoors.
Our list includes non-fiction and fiction books for a variety of ages. We hope you enjoy our list!
Let’s start with our favorite fiction books.
Written & Illustrated by Kenard Pak
This beautifully illustrated book is perfect for early fall as the seasons start to change. A simple read welcoming the new season and the changes outside that come along with it.
Written & Illustrated by Paddy Donnelly
This is a great book that incorporates the imagination and the great outdoors. The Vanishing Lake is a journey of discovery for Meara. Some days Lake Loughareema is beautiful and full while other days it is completely empty. Follow along as Meara learns why. The final few pages of the book explains the real secret behind Lake Loughareema in Ireland.
Pipsie Nature Detective: Turtle Trouble
Written by Rick DeDonato & Illustrated by Tracy Bishop
Pipsie is a nature loving detective with her sidekick Alfred Z. Turtle. In this nature mystery Pipsie and Alfred retrace Alfred’s steps to find out why he is so stinky and sticky. Help Pipsie make this nature mystery history!
Shelby & Watts Book 1: Tide Pool Troubles
Written & Illustrated by Ashlyn Anstee
Our little guy gets the credit for finding this book! In his first trip to the library as a kindergartener he brought home this gem. Shelby and Watts are partners in solving nature mysteries. They get a letter from Fred a hermit crab needing some help – he can’t find a bigger shell! Follow along as Shelby and Watts each use their strengths to help Fred and the rest of the hermit crabs. This book also includes fun facts about tide pool animals throughout the story, which the kids and I both enjoyed.
Explorers of the Wild
Written & Illustrated by Cale Atkinson
Explorers of the Wild is a great book to encourage open minded exploring of the great outdoors. Simple text and vivid illustrations makes this a great book for all ages. Two explorers discover each other and realize they can explore even more together.
Zoey & Sassafras: The Pod & The Bog
Written by Asia Citro & Illustrated by Marion Lindsey
Our second grader loves the Zoey and Sassafras book series. This series is great to read aloud as a family or for independent readers. Zoey is a science loving girl who helps the magical creatures in the nearby forest by running experiments to solve their problems. In this book, Zoey’s magical froggy friend Pip finds a glowing rainbow pod. The story follows along as Zoey, her cat Sassafras, and Pip work to figure out where it belongs.
Now on to some of our favorite non-fiction nature books:
Written by Kate Siber & Illustrated by Chris Turnham
This is such a great book! Our kids love the larger size and the amazing illustrations. It is a great book to learn from, but also to help plan your next National Park Adventure. All the National Parks are mentioned in the book, but only certain parks are featured in detail. We really enjoyed reading about some of the parks we have not yet visited, especially those in other regions of the country.
Written & Illustrated by Yuval Zommer
Our kiddos love the ocean, so any ocean themed book is usually a hit. We chose to include this one on our list since it covers so much information and is setup in a way that makes it easy to ready a small portion before bedtime. There are two pages (side by side) about each topic with the text and illustrations weaved together. This would make a great gift for any ocean loving child.
An Anthology of Intriguing Animals
Written by Ben Hoare & Illustrated by Daniel Long, Angela Rizza, Daniela Terrazzini
This is a great book for animal lovers. This anthology has interesting facts, photographs, and illustrations of over 100 animals. The text about each animal is short making it easy to read about multiple animals at a time (particularly before bed) and keep young readers’ interest. We have read through this entire book multiple times and continue to pick it up to read it again.
We hope you check out some of these great outdoorsy reads for children. They are perfect for an afternoon read outside, a bedtime routine, or even the perfect gift for birthdays and holidays.
Do you have any outdoorsy books we should add to our library? Please share them in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you.
As always, we hope to see you outside!