Environmental Middle Grade

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (2002)

Roy is the new kid in school again. He learns that there are burrowing owls living in a nearby lot. When the lot is going to be torn down to make way for a new development, Roy and his new friends launch a campaign to stop the development and save the owls.

5 Worlds series by Mark Siegel, Alexis Siegel, Xanthe Bouma, Matt Rockefeller, and Boya Sun (started in 2017)

This graphic novel series is immersive, exciting, and beautiful. The eponymous worlds are Mon Domani and its four moons. Each of the books focuses on a different location, giving the artists a chance to depict varied environments — from deserts to moss-covered seas. Although the series also engages with racism and totalitarianism, environmentalism is a big part of the message.

Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes (2013)

Maddy is spending the summer with her grandmother in the Bayou. She falls in love with the place, but an oil spill threatens its existence. An environmental powerhouse with touches of magic and merfolk.

Nowhere Better Than Here by Sarah Guillory (2022)

Jillian’s Louisiana town is smaller than it used to be because of the erosion of the coastline. She’s devastated when the state shuts down the school and encourages townspeople to move. She works with her friends on a project to preserve the photographs of the town — in the past and now — and records residents telling stories about their memories for an exhibit in a museum.

The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt (2023)

I am a big fan of Gary D. Schmidt’s books, and this one does not disappoint. Hercules lives with his brother in Cape Cod and is still healing from the recent death of both his parents. The weather is a big part of this book — a storm sweeps away a neighbor’s house and floods the Cape Cod Academy for Environmental Science, where Hercules is a student. Beyond all that, Hercules is assigned to perform the labors of the mythical Hercules for a yearlong school project.