Books like Just a Dream
By Chris Van Allsburg
For the kid who tosses recycling in the trash without thinking twice, this is the book that quietly changes how they see a tree, a river, a pile of garbage. Dreamlike, quiet, a little haunting, ultimately hopeful.
A pale, speckled moth hides safely on lichen-covered trees until sooty factories darken the land, and survival suddenly depends on which moths blend in and which stand out.
A man strips the Earth of its resources, digging and drilling until the planet is buried in rubbish — then falls asleep for years, and wakes to find dinosaurs have taken over.
A mysterious creature called the Once-ler tells the story of how he chopped down every Truffula Tree to build his factory, ignoring the Lorax's warnings until the forest and its animals were gone.
In a real Harlem neighborhood, a girl named Nevaeh calls an abandoned lot the haunted garden, until a caring man invites the local kids to transform it into a thriving farm.
A young bat named Chiro must fly out into the world alone for the first time, on a very dark night, and learns to trust the song inside him to find his way.
Mother Earth writes a heartfelt letter to children everywhere, telling them how much she loves them and asking them to love and protect her and all the creatures who share her home.
A woman who loves the trees of her Kenyan homeland begins planting seeds one by one, teaching other women to do the same, until the whole country grows strong and green again.
A little girl named Jane grows up watching birds, trees, and animals with her toy chimpanzee Jubilee always at her side, dreaming of a life spent living among and helping all creatures.
A girl grows up among fig trees and clear streams in the Kenyan highlands, then returns from college to find the land stripped bare and her people struggling — so she begins teaching them to plant trees again.
A girl named Alice Rumphius vows to travel the world, live by the sea, and find a way to make the world more beautiful — and spends her life keeping that promise.
A young Hawaiian girl named Ano explores her island home through canoes, hawks, and forest lizards, then learns hula — the storytelling dance that carries her people's history — and discovers what aloha truly means.
Smoke itself speaks in riddles, describing how it has signaled, flavored, healed, and mattered to people across centuries — from ancient fires to sacred ceremonies.
