6 illustrated books to learn about Earth, climate change, flora and fauna

Pic/Nimesh Dave

Picnic on Grass

The grass gets greener with every page. This level 2 book is a delight for kids who get to learn about at least eight different types of grass, their sturdiness and how useful some of them can be. We give them full marks for the illustrations that make something as basic as grass look striking.

Snails in a Spiral

This level 1 book is designed for emerging readers, where patterns like lines, dots and spirals are shown using wildlife. We like how this basic learning is imparted by using creepy crawlies in the most adorable-looking way.

Vira and Tilli

Who would have imagined that learning about onions could be so interesting? Through little Vira's journey, we see stages of growth of an onion: from seeds, watering, sapling, full-grown onion bulb, cutting the leaves; till it reaches the mandi for sale. The emotional journey and the DIY in this level 3 title tells us how to grow an onion at home won our vote.

Patti's Gold

We all know how expensive gold is, and this story uses that as a metaphor to make readers understand how invaluable indigenous crops are. The illustrations in the level 4 title have a crayon-like effect and there's a child-like quality in the strokes, which we think will make it appealing to toddlers. We like how in the end, there's a list of local types and names of rice.

Plants Are Everywhere

This level 3 book, as the title says, is all about plants! It deals with the simple question ‘where do plants grow?' The answers are written in a fun way, with stunning visuals. We love how detailed the illustrations are, be it the roots of the vegetables, the earthworms or the grey hair of the sweet granny.

Our Beautiful World

The level 4 book covers Earth's journey from a billion years ago, and how and what humans did, that today, we are facing the adverse effects of climate change. All of this is shown and written in an easy-to-understand way. Though a bit serious, we love how the story ends with hope, as it shows the way we can still fix the threatening situation of climate change.

Read up

Level 1: Beginning to read/read aloud.
Level 2: Learning to read
Level 3: Reading proficiently.
Level 4: Reading independently.

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