I'm so glad you're interested in ecology books for children, for if the planet is going to be preserved it's the present generation of children that will have to do it. One good book on the subject is The Lost Kingdom of Karneka, a fairy tale by Richard Kennedy, co-published by the Sierra Club. This is the fairy tale of a king, greedy to extract great treasure from his kingdom. What he didn't realize was that in extracting the resource he was literally killing his land by tearing its heart out. The other book, Rainforest by Helen Cowcher, is a gorgeous picture book, as good for parent as for child, that shows the devastation wrought on land and animals when men and machines decimate the rainforest. The book is powerful and truly terrifying. It needs hardly any words, but it will give the whole family much to talk about. From here you might move on to specific nature books.

Peter Neumeyer is a professor of English at San Diego State University and highly recognized in the field of children's literature. He is the author, editor, or translator of 10 books and over 100 articles. His articles and reviews appear regularly in Mother and Parents' Choice. In 1994, he published The Annotated Charlotte's Web, and he is currently assembling his second collection of poetry.