Book Nook

Theme: A children’s book based on the true story of Sundar Paliwal, who started a tradition in his Indian village of Piplantri where 111 trees are planted for every girl born. The book illustrates how this initiative promotes environmental sustainability, female empowerment, and education by linking tree planting to girls’ schooling and delayed marriage, transforming a barren landscape into a fertile one.

Grades: All Ages

Picture Book, Non-Fiction

Celebrating diversity and inclusion, the story follows a group of children through a day at their school, emphasizing that everyone is welcome regardless of their background, traditions, or appearance. The book’s lyrical text and vibrant illustrations promote the idea that differences are strengths and that a welcoming environment fosters learning and growth.

Grades: Pre K & Kindergarten

Picture Book, Fiction

Theme: A global history of people raising their voices in social movements around the world, including youth, with art as the primary medium. Elements of color, design, technology, and even typography are highlighted along with the challenge, what will we do now?

Grades: 6 – 12
Protest Art, Non-Fiction

Theme: This book highlights how girls can harness social media for positive change, activism, and community building, acting as a guide to becoming a responsible digital citizen. It focuses on the constructive, empowering, and creative ways young women use online platforms for social justice, environmental advocacy, and self-expression. This daughter-mother duo captures two generations of ideas about what social media can harm and create. The possibilities for being connected, learning a language as a refugee, gaining understanding of cultural mores, creating an app to connect people with a rare disease, and getting a plastic bag ban in Bali make convincing stories that social media for good is happening.

Grades: 3 – 7
Non-Fiction

Theme: Facts and fakes? This book encourages critical thinking, healthy skepticism while emphasizing accuracy and knowing when to say “whoops!” Includes terms like “clickbait,” “propaganda,” deepfake,” and what a “bot” can actually do. A must have media literacy book.

Grades: 5 – 8
Non-Fiction

Theme: This book focuses a how better world can be created through cultivating empathy, community, and social justice. The book uses an alphabetical, poem-a-day format to explore key values like kindness, respect, and diversity, offering actionable, “try it” prompts for young readers.

Grades: 4 – 10
Non-Fiction

Theme: Inspired by his wish for a dog, and curious about just how many dogs live in his neighborhood, Louis sets out to knock on doors and discover the answer for himself. Along the way, the story highlights the power of initiative, the joy of connecting with neighbors, and the meaningful bonds between pets and their people. The book gently explores themes of community, civic engagement, compassion, and intergenerational connection, showing how one small question can open the door to belonging and shared understanding.

Grades: Pre K – 3
Picture Book, Fiction

This book showcases the importance of environmental stewardship, sustainable agriculture, and ecological interconnection. It highlights a woman farmer’s role in creating healthy, nutrient-rich soil and, through community engagement, connecting people to the joy of eating fresh, locally grown herbs and greens. From a small patch in 1972 in Massachusetts, Farmer Eva Sommaripa now has a working farm producing greens, herbs, and flowers for restaurants, groceries, and neighbors. Her understanding and care of the soil (depicted in the book) became an essential ingredient to success. Meanwhile she is part of the annual salamander brigade to save these migrating crawlers.

Grades: Pre K – 3
Picture Book, Non-Fiction

Focuses on themes of perseverance, resilience, and overcoming adversity to achieve one’s goals regardless of age or physical limitations. The story highlights that every step forward is a victory, encouraging grit and positive representation.
At age 88 Fauja Singh ran his first marathon. During the New York City marathon (age 93), despite racist words hurled at him, he ran. He completed the Toronto Waterfront Marathon at age 100!

Grades: Pre K – 3
Picture Book, Non-Fiction

Theme: A celebration of human kindness by examining a multitude of perspectives from the history to the science, along with stories from around the world. A hopeful examination of what humans can do and the impact we can have every day.
Grades: 3 – 7
Non-Fiction

Theme: A tornado, a blizzard, a forest fire, and a hurricane are met, in turn, with resilience and awe in this depiction of nature’s power and our own.

Grades: Pre K & Kindergarten

Picture Book, Fiction

Theme: The focus is on the balance of giving and receiving, specifically exploring empathy, community, and dignity regarding food insecurity. The story teaches that helping others is about sharing what you can, when you can, and that needing help is not a source of shame.

Grades: Pre-K – 1
Picture Book, Fiction

Theme: Explores the fundamental connection between humans and animals, promoting compassion and empathy for all creatures. Highlighting how, despite differences in appearance and needs, all living beings share common desires like love, safety, and a will to survive.

Grades: Pre-School – 3rd Grade

Picture Book, NF

This book delves into the intersection of innovative architecture, sustainability, and humanitarian social good. It highlights how, by using inexpensive, recyclable materials like paper tubes, architects can solve large-scale global problems, providing dignified, sustainable, and rapid emergency housing for disaster victims.

Grades: All Ages
Picture Book, Non-Fiction

Theme: The story of a neighborhood where conformity is strictly enforced by the General and Mrs. Pinch, who ban fun and games. When the eccentric, multi-colored Araboolies move in, their unconventional behavior disrupts the established order. The children, initially unhappy with the rules, find themselves drawn to the Araboolies and resist the General’s attempts to control them, eventually leading to a confrontation with the army and a resolution that celebrates diversity and freedom. 

Grades: K – 3

Picture Book, Fiction

Theme: An illustrated book that weaves together ancient history with new scientific research showing hope is more than a feeling and is in fact essential for our well-being. Learn the history of hope, how it can be measured, learned and practiced — even where you can find hope in your brain. Backmatter includes real-world examples of hopeful environmental activists and of ways kids can cultivate hope.

Grades: 4 – 12
Non-Fiction

Theme: A graphic novel memoir focusing on themes of resilience, hope, family, and the refugee experience. The story depicts life in a Kenyan refugee camp, exploring the endurance required to survive trauma, the value of education, and the deep, selfless love between siblings, specifically Omar and his nonverbal brother, Hassan.

Grades: 5 – 12
Graphic Memoir, Non-Fiction

Theme: Empowering communities to support urban wildlife, restore habitats, and rewild city spaces for a healthier, greener future.

Grades 4–7

NF

Theme: A graphic novel biography that tells the true story of three groundbreaking female scientists who revolutionized primatology. Guided by famed anthropologist Louis Leakey, these women ventured into the wild to study chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans in their natural habitats—transforming our understanding of these species and our connection to them.

Grades: 5–9

Graphic Novel, NF

Theme: Empathy, respect for all living things, and responsible decision-making. Exploring different perspectives, specifically through the dialogue between a boy and an ant about to be squashed. Encourages critical thinking about the use of power and the influence of peer pressure on ethical choices. 

Grades: K–5

Picture Book, F