Books About Trees

Falling tem­per­a­tures and short­er days mean plen­ty of time to read! We asked our staff for their favorite books about trees, from the sci­en­tif­ic to books for babies. Get start­ed on that hol­i­day shopping!
Psst — shop small! All of these links take you to bookshop.org, where you can select a local book­store to sup­port as you shop online. 

Kids Books
Chic­ka Chic­ka Boom Boom — John Archam­bault & Bill Martin
Learn the alpha­bet as the let­ters race each oth­er up the coconut tree!

The Tiny Seed — Eric Carle
The life cycle of the flower, as told through the eyes of famed author and illus­tra­tor Eric Carle.

The Giv­ing Tree — Shel Silverstein
The clas­sic tale of love, accep­tance, and just how much trees pro­vide for us.

The Tree Book for Kids and Their Grown-ups — Gina Ingoglia
Why do trees do that? Kids (and their grown-ups) will have their tree ques­tions answered. Fea­tures beau­ti­ful botan­i­cal water­col­ors every­one will enjoy!

The Busy Tree — Jen­nifer Ward
Trees are just for leaves! Learn all about the activ­i­ties that hap­pen in a tree in this beau­ti­ful­ly illus­trat­ed book.

Tree — Petra Bartkova

Non­fic­tion For Adults
The New Wild — Fred Pearce
Explore the world of inva­sive species, and why they may not be so bad after all.

The Gold­en Spruce: A True Sto­ry of Myth, Mad­ness, and Greed — John Vaillant
The true sto­ry of log­ger-turned-activist Grant Had­win and a 165 foot tall Sit­ka spruce.

The Wild Trees: A Sto­ry of Pas­sion and Dar­ing — Richard Preston
Vis­it the coastal red­woods and learn the sto­ry of Steve Sil­lett, Marie Antoine, and a group of botanists and nat­u­ral­ists deter­mined to explore.

The Man Who Plant­ed Trees: A Sto­ry of Lost Groves, the Sci­ence of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Plan­et — Jim Robbins
The sto­ry of David Milarch and his jour­ney to clone the biggest trees in the world and save the planet.

Lab Girl — Hope Jahren
The author’s mem­oir, detail­ing her life study­ing trees, flow­ers, seeds, and soil through­out her life.

Braid­ing Sweet­grass — Robin Wall Kimmerer
Robin Wall Kim­mer­er is a mem­ber of the Cit­i­zen Potawato­mi Nation. Her book explores the gifts and lessons of the earth and the rec­i­p­ro­cal rela­tion­ship we share.

A Walk in the Woods: Redis­cov­er­ing Amer­i­ca on the Appalachi­an Trail — Bill Bryson
Take a hike with Bill Bryson along the Appalachi­an Trail.

Walden — Hen­ry David Thoreau
Thore­au’s clas­sic recount­ing of his expe­ri­ence in a small house on Walden Pond.

Last Child in the Woods: Sav­ing Our Chil­dren from Nature-Deficit Dis­or­der — Richard Louv
The impor­tance of con­nect­ing chil­dren to nature and the outdoors.

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Hap­pi­er, Health­i­er, and More Cre­ative — Flo­rence Williams
Explore the sci­ence behind nature’s pos­i­tive effects on the brain.

Lim­ber — Angela Pelster
A col­lec­tion of essays of the world’s his­to­ry through trees from a rur­al Cana­di­an back­yard to a desert in Niger.

Fic­tion for Adults
The Man Who Plant­ed Trees — Jean Giono
An alle­gor­i­cal tale of a man who changes the land­scape of the coun­try­side around him, thanks to a few acorns.

A Tree Grows in Brook­lyn — Bet­ty Smith
The Amer­i­can clas­sic fol­low­ing Fran­cie Nolan’s com­ing of age — and the Tree of Heav­en that refus­es to be destroyed.

More Sci­en­tif­ic
Man­u­al of Woody Land­scape Plants — Michael Dirr and Charles Heuser, Jr.
A ref­er­ence man­u­al with over 1,100 species of plants, their prop­a­ga­tion require­ments, and more.

The Over­sto­ry Book — Craig Elevitch
Fea­tures 134 short chap­ters with top­ics rang­ing from agri­cul­tur­al tech­niques, land­scapes, to effec­tive windbreaks.

Tree Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion
The Sib­ley Guide to Trees — David Allen Sibley
A beau­ti­ful book of tree iden­ti­fi­ca­tion fea­tur­ing more than 4,100 paint­ings of over 600 tree species.

Trees of Penn­syl­va­nia and the North­east — Charles Fergus
Dis­cov­er the trees of the Key­stone State and the sur­round­ing areas.

Remark­able Trees of Vir­ginia — Nan­cy Ross Hugo, Jef­frey Lynn Kir­wn, and Robert Llewellyn
A beau­ti­ful com­pi­la­tion of the most remark­able trees in Vir­ginia fea­tur­ing pho­tographs by Robert Llewellyn