Families For Life | 6 Best Books on Climate Change for Kids

From heatwaves and freezing cold winters to rising sea levels and flash floods, these are some of the effects attributed to global climate change.

Even here in Singapore where we are shielded from the most extreme of weather and natural disasters, climate change has surely hit us with more sweltering days and warmer nights.

So what can we do now? Teaching our children about the world they will inherit is imperative through our daily conversations, books we read, and activities we partake in, so that we can live more sustainably today.

Here's a great selection of books to impart much-needed wisdom and knowledge about climate change, for children of all ages. Good, green habits are the way to go!

Change Starts with Us by Sophie Beer

It’s never too early to teach our children about how we can make a difference to our broken planet, as this vibrant board book shows. Read this adorably illustrated book to your toddler to introduce and encourage good habits that they can easily practice everyday, such as riding a bicycle with their family instead of taking a car, turning off the tap after washing their hands, and picking up litter with their friends. It’s a great way to show them that caring for the environment starts with small actions at home! Suitable for children aged 0 to 3 years old.

Something Happened to Our Planet: Kids Tackle the Climate Crisis by Marianne Celano and Marietta Collins

If you want to start a conversation about climate change at home with your children but are not quite sure how and where to start, you will want to pick this book up. Told from the perspective of a narrator who is worried about the planet and wishes to start doing something–anything–to help in her own small ways, this book will inspire your children to take that first step too, wherever they are. Suitable for children aged 4 to 7 years old.

Climate Change, the Choice Is Ours: The Facts, Our Future, and Why There’s Hope! by David Miles

In this interactive picture encyclopedia, children are introduced to climate change including itscauses, consequences, and what can be done about it. It’s carefully researched (from sources like NASA and the UN), yet extremely easy to understand, making this a wonderful way to introduce such a heavy topic to your children while teaching them how they can make a positive change for a better future. A built-in spinner requires children to make a choice at every page: make a change to save the planet, or leave things as they are–and see what unfolds. Suitable for children aged 7 to 10 years old.

Lonely Planet Kids the Plastic Problem 1: 60 Small Ways to Reduce Waste and Help Save the Earth by Aubre Andrus

This book makes it easy for children to habitually cut down plastic use–arguably one of the biggest culprits in global warming. With 60 extremely doable suggestions that children can implement everyday, like bringing their lunch to school in a reusable container, swapping items with friends to reduce new purchases, and packing reusable bags when going shopping, children are guided to take small, actionable steps each and every day to form better habits with less plastic in their lives. Suitable for children aged 8 to 12 years old.

Palm Trees at the North Pole: The Hot Truth About Climate Change by Marc ter Horst

Packed with everything a budding climatologist will want to know about climate change from past to present, this book is a treasure trove of facts, masterfully written with humour and accompanied by beautiful illustrations. Children will love pouring over this book, learning about every aspect of climate change and being inspired by climate change heroes of this generation. Suitable for children aged 8 to 12 years old. 

Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight for Our Future by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich 

This is a children’s version of the widely-acclaimed book, Losing Earth: A Recent History, that was based onwritten from an article that was published in the 2018 issue of the New York Times Magazine. A great read for older children, this book tells the story of the history of climate change and the role we humans played in it, prompting us to think hard about the role we will play to make things right again in the future. Suitable for children aged 12 and up.

If you want to know how you and your child can do something here in Singapore, you can start by checking out our national Clean and Green Singapore movement!