13 Canadian books to read for Earth Day 2024
CBC Books | Posted: April 22, 2024 5:03 PM | Last Updated: April 22
Earth Day is celebrated around the world on April 22. Here's a reading list of 13 Canadian books — fiction, poetry, nonfiction and books for kids — about the flora and fauna, climate change and how to care for the environment.
Apocalypse Child by Carly Butler
In Apocalypse Child, Carly Butler recounts growing up in 1990s Montana and moving to the Canadian wilderness at a young age due to her mother's belief in the Evangelical Christian end of the world. Isolated in the woods, her life shifts to learning survival techniques based on religious doctrine and conspiracy theories.
The book explores Butler's resilient journey dealing with the end of the world that never came, motherhood and the development of her queer, Mexican-Indigenous identity.
Butler is a B.C.-based author who has written for Loose Lips Magazine. She has been a babysitter, birth doula, barista and house cleaner and identifies as a bisexual Indigenous woman with roots in Mexico.
It Stops Here by Rueben George, with Michael Simpson
It Stops Here: Standing Up for Our Lands, Our Waters, and Our People is part memoir, part call-to-action. It recounts the stance taken against the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion from the perspective of Rueben George of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation who has devoted years to fighting this project.
George is Sundance Chief and a member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN). He is the manager of TWN's Sacred Trust initiative to protect the unceded Tsleil-Waututh lands and waters from the proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion.
Michael Simpson is a writer whose work focuses on settler colonialism and conflicts over oil and gas pipelines in Canada.
Medicine Wheel for the Planet by Dr. Jennifer Grenz
In Medicine Wheel for the Planet, restoration ecologist Jennifer Grenz meditates on the disconnect between her training in Western colonial science and her Indigenous worldview to explore the preservation of flora and fauna. Her decades of experience in the Pacific Northwest expose ecology's failure to reach its goal of creating a pre-human, untouched natural world. Based on the knowledge of elders, field observations and sacred stories, Grenz explores land reconciliation and advocates for a diversity of world views to fight against climate change and protect the planet.
Grenz is a Nlaka'pamux ecologist based in British Columbia. She is the founder and leader of Greener This Side, a consulting company that conducts invasive species management and environmental restoration activities for the provincial government and Indigenous communities. She is also an assistant professor in the department of Forest Resources Management at the University of British Columbia.
LISTEN | Dr. Jennifer Grenz talks about Medicine Wheel for the Planet on Quirks & Quarks:
Followed by the Lark by Helen Humphreys
Followed by the Lark was inspired by poet and abolitionist Henry David Thoreau's own journals and writing. Crafted as a series of short vignettes, the novel examines Thoreau's connections to nature and its intimate ties with grief and loss throughout his life.
Helen Humphreys is an author of fiction, non-fiction and poetry from Kingston, Ont. Her 2015 novel, The Evening Chorus, was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award. Her memoir, Nocturne, was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award. Previous novels include Coventry, a finalist for the Trillium Book Award; Afterimage, which won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize; Leaving Earth, which won the Toronto Book Award; and The Lost Garden, which was a Canada Reads selection in 2003, when it was defended by Mag Ruffman.
Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr
Isidore "Ezzy" Desjarlais and Grey Ginther live together in Grey's uncle's trailer, passing their time with cribbage and cheap beer. The former is cynical of what she feels is a lazy and performative activist culture, while the latter is simply devoted to her distant cousin. So when Ezzy concocts a scheme to set a herd of bison loose in downtown Edmonton, Grey is along for the ride — a ride in Prairie Edge that has devastating, fatal consequences.
Kerr is a Métis/Ukrainian writer who hails from many prairie towns and cities, including Saskatoon. He now lives in Edmonton. A 2022 CBC Books writer to watch, his previous works include the novels Old Gods and Avenue of Champions, which was longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and won the ReLit award the same year. Kerr currently teaches creative writing at the University of Alberta.
LISTEN | Conor Kerr spoke to The Next Chapter's Ali Hassan about Prairie Edge:
Dispersals by Jessica J. Lee
Dispersals: On Plants, Borders, and Belonging is a collection of 14 essays that use the global world of flora to examine how the lives of plants and human beings intersect and connect with each other. Blending memoir, scientific research and history, Jessica J. Lee interrogates displacement, identity and belonging to explore the movement and evolution of individuals and plant species across borders.
Lee is a British Canadian Taiwanese author and environmental historian. She won the 2020 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, the 2021 Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature and the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writer Award. She is the author of Turning and Two Trees Make a Forest.
Hazard, Home by Christine Lowther
Hazard, Home is a collection of nature poetry with a decolonial lens. The work examines the world with wonder at the animals and plants — and grief due to urbanization, climate change and loss of biodiversity.
Christine Lowther resides in ƛaʔuukwiiʔatḥ (Tla-o-qui-aht) territory on the west coast. She is the editor of Worth More Standing: Poets and Activists Pay Homage to Trees and its youth companion volume. She is also the author of four poetry collections. She served as Tofino's Poet Laureate during the COVID years and was shortlisted for the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize.
Nutshimit: In the Woods by Melissa Mollen Dupuis, illustrated by Elise Gravel
In the non-fiction book Nutshimit: In the Woods, Innu writer Melissa Mollen Dupuis takes children on a guided walk through the forest to learn about Innu culture. Illustrator Elise Gravel brings the words to life with her comic style illustrations.
Nutshimit: In the Woods is for ages 6 to 8.
Melissa Mollen Dupuis is a writer, director and radio show host and a member of the Innu community of Ekuanitshit on Quebec's Côte-Nord. Dupuis is the co-founder of the Quebec branch of the Idle No More movement. She lives in Granby, Que. Nutshimit: In the Woods is her first children's book.
Elise Gravel is a Quebec author and illustrator who has written and illustrated over 50 books for children. Her books include The Bat, The Worst Book Ever, The Mushroom Fan Club, I Want a Monster! and What Is a Refugee. Gravel won the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People in 2022 for her body of work. She lives in Montreal.
I Am a Rock by Ashley Qilavaq-Savard, illustrated by Pelin Turgut
At bedtime, Pauloosie asks his Anaana, or mother, what rocks would say to us if they could. In I Am A Rock, Pauloosie's pet rock, Miki Rock describes all that it can see, feel and hear as part of the land in the Arctic from the winds to the animals, the Northern lights and more.
I Am A Rock is for ages 3 to 5.
Ashley Qilavaq-Savard is an Inuk writer and artist from Iqaluit. She is the author of Where the Sea Kuniks the Land and I Am A Rock is her first picture book. Qilavaq-Savard also makes sealskin and beaded jewellery and studies Inuktitut.
Pelin Turgut is a children's book illustrator from Turkey.
River Mumma by Zalika Reid-Benta
River Mumma is a magical realist story inspired by Jamaican folklore. The main character is a young Black woman having a quarter-life crisis while adventuring through the streets of Toronto. The story follows Alicia, a young woman who still lives at home with her mom and has no career prospects. One evening, River Mumma, the Jamaican water deity, appears to inform Alicia that she has 24 hours to find her missing comb in the city.
Why River Mumma chose her is a mystery. Alicia barely remembers the legends she was told about the deity as a child. Still, Alicia embarks on her quest through the city which turns into a journey through time — to find herself, but also what the river carries.
Zalika Reid-Benta is a Toronto-based author who explores race, identity and culture through the lens of second-generation Caribbean Canadians in her work. The Columbia MFA graduate's debut novel Frying Plantain was on the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist. CBC Books named Reid-Benta a writer to watch in 2019 and she served as jury chair for the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
LISTEN | Zalika Reid-Benta on Q:
Fire Weather by John Vaillant
Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast delves into the events surrounding the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, the multi-billion-dollar disaster that melted vehicles, turned entire neighbourhoods into firebombs and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon.
Fire Weather was shortlisted for the 2023 Writers' Trust Hilary Weston nonfiction award and won the Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction.
John Vaillant is a Vancouver-based freelance writer, novelist and nonfiction author. His first book, The Golden Spruce, which told the story of a rare tree and the man who cut it down, won the 2005 Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction. Vaillant's second title The Tiger was a contender on Canada Reads 2012.
LISTEN | John Vaillant on wildfires:
All That Grows by Jack Wong
All That Grows follows a young boy and his older sister as they take notice of all the plants they come across on their walks in the neighbourhood. His sister shares all the fun facts she knows about plants, from what could be edible, to why some might smell and how to care for them. As he learns more he is amazed at all that there is out there to learn and lets his love for learning flourish alongside nature.
All That Grows is for ages 3 to 6.
Jack Wong is a Halifax-based author and illustrator who was born in Hong Kong but grew up in Vancouver. His debut picture book is When You Can Swim. CBC Books named Jack Wong a writer to watch in 2023.
Bompa's Insect Expedition by David Suzuki, with Tanya Lloyd Kyi, illustrated by Qin Leng
Bompa's Insect Expedition follows a pair of twins as they go on an insect expedition with their grandfather. Inspired by David Suzuki's adventures with his grandchildren, the picture book showcases a part of nature that can sometimes be overlooked — the world of bugs.
Bompa's Insect Expedition is for ages 4 to 8.
David Suzuki is an environmentalist, scientist and science broadcaster. He was the host of CBC's The Nature of Things from 1979, until retiring from the show in spring 2023. The Vancouver-based environmentalist is a father of five and grandfather of 10, including twins Nakina and Kaoru. He is also an author of over 50 books, including Letters to my Grandchildren and The Sacred Balance.
Tanya Lloyd Kyi has written more than 30 books for children and teenagers, including The Best Way to Get Your Way, This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes, Under Pressure and Mya's Strategy to Save the World. Kyi lives in Vancouver.
Qin Leng is a Toronto illustrator, writer and visual development artist. Her recent books include I Am Small, which Leng wrote and illustrated, and she has illustrated numerous books including A Kid is a Kid is a Kid and A Family is a Family is a Family by Sara O'Leary.