Earth Day Reads for Teens

Earth Day is a time to celebrate nature, reflect on all that Mother Earth does for us, and take action to protect our planet. You can do good for the Earth by doing something as small as picking up litter off the ground, or as big as leading a protest on climate justice. No matter what action you take, you can make a difference no matter who you are. 

In Few Blue Skies, Paloma's home town of San Fermín - made up mostly of farmland and factories - has been slowly taken over by warehouses by megacorporation, Selva. These warehouses lead to pollution that has lead to school cancellation due to the air quality and even sickness and death, as with Paloma's ex-boyfriend Julio's father. Paloma and Julio join forces to try and expose Selva and stop the warehouse from being built.

The 21 tells the story of "Juliana vs. United States", a landmark court case where 21 young people between the ages of 8 and 19 from several different states sued the United States Government for its support of the fossil fuel industry and the changes to the climate that it has caused. They claimed that all citizens, especially youth, have a right to a stable climate.

Thinking about the future of the planet and how climate change is affecting us can make you feel anxious and powerless. The book How to Manage your Eco-anxiety tackles those feelings of helplessness by offering a guide on how to acknowledge and deal with those feelings as well as provide concrete actions you can take to be kinder to both yourself and the planet.

Academic rivals Isa Brown and Darius Freeman clash over the best way to run their school's Environmental Justice Club in We Don't Have Time for This. With issues like a new natural gas pipeline in town and wildfires that ravage their community, the two need to learn to work together to make real change. As they try to find middle ground, their feelings for each other start to change too. 

When thinking about the climate, it's easy to feel like everything is bleak.  A Short, Hopeful Guide to Climate Change acknowledges the very real consequences of climate change while also showing it's not hopeless. There are positive actions being taken around the world to fight climate change. This book inspires hope and provides ways young people can be apart of the solution.

Let us know below what you plan to do to celebrate Earth Day!