Happy Earth Day!

Counting Down to Earth Day: Day 3

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

By William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer

Illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon

Dial, 2012

$16.99, ages 6 and up, 32 pages

It stood like a clumsy giraffe and was cobbled from metal scraps, but to William it was more magical than anything he'd dreamed of.

In this inspiring adaptation, Africa's William Kamkwambi recounts with New York author Bryan Mealer how he rigged a windmill for his village using only a picture as his guide.

The story, which can be read for free online at wegivebooks.org, is based on Kamkwamba's New York Times best-selling memoir by the same name, also co-authored by Mealer.

Kamkwamba and Mealer condense the story beautifully, while West Africa-born artist Elizabeth Zunon conveys Kamkwamba's irrepressible spirit with fluid cut-outs and luminous, earthy oil paintings.

At age 14, William Kamkwamba pondered the possibilities of what could be. When night came to his drought-ravaged village of Malawi, he closed his eyes to see where his mind would take him.

Counting Down to Earth Day: Day 4

House Held Up By Trees

By Ted Kooser

Illustrated by Jon Klassen

Candlewick, 2012

$16.99, ages 4-10, 32 pages

When a little house is boarded up and forgotten, trees sprout up around it and lift it into the sky, in this stirring picture book about the power of nature to lift us up.

As he did in his moving debut Bag in the Wind, author Ted Kooser addresses a conflict between man and nature, but in such a gentle way that it never feels as if any judgment is being made.

In Bag in the Wind, he follows the journey of a discarded bag that's gotten loose in the wind, while here, he observes a man determined to keep trees from sprouting in his lot so that he can have a perfect lawn.

Kooser, in an author's note, explains that the man is struggling against time; as he fights to keep nature from taking over his yard, what he's really fighting is change. His children are growing up and moving away, and there's nothing he can do to stop it.

But like paintings, books can be interpreted in many ways, and to me, House Held Up By Trees is also a triumphant story of nature reclaiming what was taken from it, then of nature forgiving those who've trespassed on it.

Counting Down to Earth Day: Day 5

Mrs. Harkness and the Panda

By Alicia Potter

Illustrated by Melissa Sweet

Alfred A. Knopf, 2012

$16.99, ages 5-8, 40 pages

Before anyone had heard of "panda-monium," the excitement that surrounds seeing pandas.

Before many Americans had even imagined that the gamboling, masked panda of legend was real.

There was a tea gown designer who, despite knowing little about animals, set off for China to bring a panda to America: not in a cage but curled up in her arms.

In this charming historical picture book, author Alicia Potter tells the story of Ruth Harkness, a Manhattan widow who set off on a journey no one thought she could make.

Her mission was to find a mythical beast known as a panda and show the world that it really existed.

In doing so, many conservationists say, she made us want to love them and spurred a worldwide effort to stop hunting them.

Counting Down to Earth Day: Day 7

The Hop
By Sharelle Byars Moranville

Illustrated by Niki Daly

Disney-Hyperion, 2012
$16.99, ages 8 and up, 288 pages

A monster with teeth on its feet is rolling into Toadville-by-Tumbledown and unless a young hopper is brave and bold, the village and every toad in it will buried under a strip mall.

In this enchanting environmental novel, Tad (a toad with second-sight) and Taylor (a girl who loves nature) find themselves on a fairy tale quest to save a meadow from development.

Though Tad doesn't yet know it, Taylor is a kindred spirit. Her grandmother lives at the edge of the meadow he calls Toadville -- near a tumbledown shed -- and Taylor's been heartsick about losing the area.

The monster is poised by the grasslands and a pond nearby -- Taylor's swimming hole since she was little, her "kingdom," as she calls it, -- and though her grandmother is like-minded, she isn't well enough to help Taylor fight the project.

Me...Jane

Written & illustrated by Patrick McDonnell

Little, Brown and Company, 2011

$15.99, ages 3-6, 40 pages

How does a child grow to love the natural world? If you're Jane Goodall, it begins by hiding out in hen houses and laying your cheek against a tree.

In this tender tribute to the legendary anthropologist, Mutts creator McDonnell shows a girl born with wonder in her eyes and a passion for creatures big and small.

In those early years, Jane flitted about her yard with her stuffed monkey Jubilee, watching nature unfold and climbing trees. She'd see birds knit together nests and squirrels scamper in spirals around trees.

Jane read everything she could about the things she saw and the exotic place she imagined visiting, a far-off place known as Africa where real-life chimpanzees perched in branches just like she loved to do with Jubilee.

She was entranced by Tarzan of the Apes (imagining herself Tarzan's Jane), dreamed of being Dr. Doolittle and filled every inch of her scrapbooks with observations, sketches and quizzes for a nature club she formed with her sisters, The Alligator Society.

Gus is a Tree

Written by Claire Babin

Illustrated by Oliver Tallec

Enchanted Lion, 2008

$14.99 each, ages 3-8, 32 pages

As a boy rests against a tree, he dreams that his feet have rooted into the ground and he's sprouted branches in this exhilarating French import.

In this second book in the Gus nature series, Gus steals away to sit quietly under a tree while other children in his schoolyard peel around and play.

He loves the grooves of the tree's bark, the way the leaves shimmer above him and the earthy fragrance of the wood.

With his back against the tree, he closes his eyes, reaches up with his hands to stroke the bark and remembers a walk through the forest with his father.

As memories of twigs crackling underfoot return, slumber takes him and Gus dreams.

In his imagination, he's a big old tree with thick branches for arms and bark striped like the sleeves of his shirt.

How the Weather Works

A Hands-On Guide to
Our Changing Climate

Written by Christiane Dorion

Illustrated by Beverley Young

Templar, 2011

$17.99, ages 7-11, 20 pages

Everyone's talking about climate change, but ask them to tell you what it is and chances are they'll get tongue-tied.

The subject is so complex and hotly debated that it's hard for children, let alone many adults, to digest what it means.

And unless you know what climate change is all about, how do you start to care about it?

In this wonderful movable guide to weather, the team behind last year's acclaimed How the World Works demystifies climate change by sorting through terms kids need to know to understand it, like what is the water cycle and ozone.

Almost the entire book is about weather, and it's only after readers work through the fundamentals, from how the sun causes weather to where rain comes from and why the wind blows, do the book's creators address climate change.

Gaia Warriors

By Nicola Davies

Afterword by James Lovelock

Candlewick, 2011

$14.99, ages 11-14, 192 pages

Earth's climate is changing fast, but don't be gloomy about it because the fight is on to slow it down and all you have to do is join in, says author Davies in her guide.

Inspired by scientist James Lovelock's theory that Earth is a living system, the guide is a no-nonsense look at how and why the climate is changing, and what readers can do to keep it from getting warmer.

Is the problem big? Davies asks. "Yes. Scary? Maybe. But let's do it anyway." Why? Because we have to, she says.

Davies calls on kids to be warriors for change, and begins and ends the book with quotes that drive home the idea that only people can make the changes happen and if they're to succeed, they can't get bogged down by doubts.

Energy Island

How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed their World

Written and illustrated by Allan Drummond

Frances Foster Books, 2011

$16.99, ages 6-10, 40 pages

A Danish island where hats are always flying off heads learns to harness the energy of the wind and takes itself off the grid.

In this remarkable true story, Drummond tells about the people of Samso who used the very thing they couldn't escape from -- buffeting winds -- to work for them.

In 1997, Denmark's government designated the island as its "renewable energy island" -- a region that could eventually run completely on free, nonpolluting energy thanks in a large part to its windy location.

Since then, the island off the Jutland peninsula has become almost entirely energy independent through the use of wind turbines, as well as district heating plants, biomass and solar panels.

It's even able to export surplus electricity from those turbines to the mainland and it has eliminated its carbon emissions by 140 percent.

That means if you were to look for a carbon footprint there, you wouldn't find one.

But becoming a green island wasn't quick and it wasn't easy.

Hug Time

Written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell

Little, Brown and Company, 2007

$14.99, ages 4-8, 48 pages.

Jules, the big-hearted kitten from McDonnell's comic strip Mutts, walks the world over trying to make hurts go away in this classic gem.

With the help of his girl Doozy, the little tabby puts on his green sweater and sets out into the world with a Hug To-Do List and front legs ready to cuddle.

First thing out the door, Jules wraps himself around each of his buddies, Mooch the feline, Noodles the alley cat and Earl the dog.

Then before he's gone far, he leaps up to give a butterfly a squeeze, and embraces a bed of buttercups and a gray squirrel.

Then it's off to the park to hug every bird he can find and next: the wide open sea. He's determined to find a big blue whale and soon spots a Y-shaped tail.

From the bow of an ocean liner, Jules reaches his arms out as the whale cranes its wide neck and hugs all of the whale that he can: a teeny tiny hug for a huge fellow.

Soon the ship docks in Africa and Jules realizes a hug just won't do, so he kisses the ground -- "the earth so precious, so fragile, so round," McDonnell writes.

Going Green: 10 Books to Inspire Kids

"So many fail because they don't get started -- they don't go. They don't overcome inertia. They don't begin." (W. Clement Stone)

It's hard to accept what's happening to change Earth -- the pollution, the rising temperatures, the harm to creatures and places we always assumed would be around.

But it's also difficult to see how any one of us has the power to stop these bad things from happening. The problems are so big and complex, we ask ourselves, "Will our actions to help clean things up ever amount to enough?"

Experts say, absolutely. If we all do something for Earth every day, then soon we'll be doing it together, and the power of one action will multiply. But how do we motivate ourselves to believe this too and change the patterns we live by?

Perhaps we just have to act as if every action matters, even if we have nothing immediate to show for it and are unsure of what we can accomplish. The late writer-editor Dorothea Brande said, "All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail."

As Earth Day approaches, I've gathered 10 books, most new, a few older, that help kids do just this: try to change the world in anyway they can. They inspire children to care about what happens, think through the problems we face and recognize that even the smallest act of conservation can go a long way.

Each of the books below offers a gentle message. The first two are poignant, showing some of the problems we face, but with hope and sometimes humor. The next three are exploratory and do a great job explaining global warming and solar energy, while the last five are motivational and convey how far-reaching one action can be.