Great Fiction & Nonfiction Books
Age Level: 3-6 years old


All the Water in the World
By: George Ella Lyon
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
Rich, rhythmic language combines with lush illustration to poetically describe the water cycle...

Bear Came Along
By: Richard T. Morris
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
Once there was a river flowing through a forest. The river didn't know it was capable of...

Blue Floats Away
By: Travis Jonker
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Concept Book
A little iceberg strikes out on a big journey in this picture book that explores the wonders of...

Crustacean Vacation
By: Brian Benoit
Age Level: 3-6 years old

Deep in the Ocean
By: Lucie Brunellière
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
A little silver submarine maneuvers past masses of busy waterfowl and sea life to plunge from...

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas
By: Lynne Cox
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
Most elephant seals live in the ocean but one prefers the Avon River in Christchurch, New...

Have You Seen My Duckling?
By: Nancy Tafuri
Age Level: 3-6 years old
An anxious mother duck leads her brood around the pond as she searches for one missing duckling...

Hello Ocean / Hola Mar
By: Pam Muñoz Ryan
Age Level: 3-6 years old

Here Come the Humpbacks!
By: April Sayre
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction

Hey, Water!
By: Antoinette Portis
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
An introduction to the water cycle and water conservation for the youngest readers. Join a young...

If You Want to See a Whale
By: Julie Fogliano
Age Level: 3-6 years old

In the Small, Small Pond
By: Denise Fleming
Age Level: 3-6 years old

Jump into Science: Coral Reefs
By: Sylvia Earle
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Readers explore a coral reef with a snorkeling young swimmer and see what the swimmer sees as...

Kumak's River: A Tale from the Far North
By: Michael Bania
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Spring comes to a remote Alaskan village, and the ice on the frozen river cracks and breaks and...

Leopard & Silkie: One Boy's Quest to Save the Seal Pups
By: Brenda Peterson
Age Level: 3-6 years old

Looking Closely Along the Shore
By: Frank Serafini
Age Level: 3-6 years old

Looking Closely Around the Pond
By: Frank Serafini
Age Level: 3-6 years old

Make Way for Ducklings
By: Robert McCloskey
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
Mrs. Mallard was sure that the pond in the Boston Public Gardens would be a perfect place for...

Mr. Gumpy's Outing
By: John Burningham
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
Mr. Gumpy lives by a river. One sunny day he decides to take a ride in his small boat. It is...

On the Way to the Beach
By: Henry Cole
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Young readers are invited to look and listen as they join a girl on a summer morning walk to the...

Out of the Ocean
By: Debra Frasier
Age Level: 3-6 years old

Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach
By: Melanie Watt
Age Level: 3-6 years old

Seashells: Treasures from the Northeast Coast
By: Joanne Roach-Evans
Age Level: 3-6 years old

Swamp Chomp
By: Lola Schaefer
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
As swamp residents move, water ripples and the creatures munch, gulp, swallow and more. Short,...

The Seashore Book
By: Charlotte Zolotow
Age Level: 3-6 years old

The Water Walker
By: Joanne Robertson
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
The determined story of an Ojibwe grandmother (nokomis), Josephine Mandamin, and her great love...

Trout Are Made of Trees
By: April Sayre
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction

Undersea Animals: A Dramatic Dimensional Visit to Strange Underwater Realms
By: Jane Buxton
Age Level: 3-6 years old

Water Is Water
By: Miranda Paul
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
Lyrical language and handsome, realistic watercolors present water in its many forms, from...

Wave
By: Suzy Lee
Age Level: 3-6 years old

We Are Water Protectors
By: Carole Lindstrom
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
An Ojibwe girl confronts a grave situation by channeling age-old wisdom. The “black snake” of an...

Where the River Begins
By: Thomas Locker
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction

Wow! Ocean
By: Robert Neubecker
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Age Level: 6-9 years old


A River
By: Marc Martin
Age Level: 6-9 years old
There's a river outside my window. Where will it take me? So begins the imaginary journey of a...

A River Ran Wild: An Environmental History
By: Lynne Cherry
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Learn how the modern-day descendants of the Nashua Indians and European settlers were able to...

Along the Tapajós
By: Fernando Vilela
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
Cauã and Inaê are a brother and sister who live in a small community along the Tapajós River in...

At the Sea Floor Cafe: Odd Ocean Critter Poems
By: Leslie Bulion
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Poems introduce sea creatures and their habitats using different poetic forms (e.g., concrete,...

Beavers
By: Gail Gibbons
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Beavers are fascinating animals. They build their own homes and live in family groups. They keep...

Bowhead Whale
By: Joanasie Karpik
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Meet bowhead whales in this slim but fact-filled volume. Dramatic illustrations add detail and...

Coral Reefs
By: Jason Chin
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A girl is transported from the library to an underwater world where she observes coral reefs and...

Deep Sea Floor
By: Sneed Collard
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Rich, realistic illustrations accompany clear text as readers explore what lives in the ocean,...

Dolphins
By: Penelope Arlon
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Splendid photographs are used along with a crisp, easier to read narrative to introduce dolphins...

Droughts
By: Melissa Stewart
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Where do droughts happen? How do we know that we are in a drought? Why is rainfall important?...

Everglades
By: Jean Craighead George
Age Level: 6-9 years old
As an Indian storyteller guides a boat of children down the sea of grass, he reveals the story...

Explore Rivers and Ponds!
By: Carla Mooney
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
From puddles to lakes, streams to rivers, and bogs to swamps, each body of water contains an...

Face to Face with Manatees
By: Brian Skerry
Age Level: 6-9 years old

Face to Face with Sharks
By: David Doubilet, Jennifer Hayes
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Underwater photographers, Hayes & Doubilet, provide basic information about their work as...

Flotsam
By: David Wiesner
Age Level: 6-9 years old

Follow the Moon Home: A Tale of One Idea, Twenty Kids, and a Hundred Sea Turtles
By: Philippe Cousteau, Deborah Hopkinson
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
To help baby loggerhead turtles find their way back to the sea, a group of children involve the...

Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean
By: Arthur Dorros
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction

Galápagos Girl / Galapagueña
By: Marsha Diane Arnold
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
As a Galápagueña, Valentina spends her days observing the natural world around her. This...

Home for a Penguin, Home for a Whale
By: Brenda Williams
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
With lyrical rhymes, readers explore a dazzling underwater menagerie. Each rhyming couplet gives...

I Know the River Loves Me / Yo se que el rio me ama
By: Maya Christina Gonzalez
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
Whenever Maya visits the river, the river jumps up to greet her. It cools her when the summer...

Lotus and Feather
By: Ji-li Jiang
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Inspired by the true story of a crane that rescued a Chinese village. One day, when a village...

Marshes and Swamps
By: Gail Gibbons
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Get an introduction to the concept of wetlands (swamps have trees, and marshes do not) and learn...

McElligot's Pool
By: Dr. Seuss
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
A small boy is fishing in the tiny, unpromising McElligot's Pool, a puddle that is nothing but a...

Meadowlands: A Wetlands Survival Story
By: Thomas R. Yezerski
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
The 20,000 acres of wetlands in New Jersey now known as the Meadowlands were once home to...

Nya's Long Walk: A Step at a Time
By: Linda Sue Park
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
With compassion, the creators present younger readers with a portrait of a life in which...

Ocean Soup: Tide-Pool Poems
By: Stephen Swinburne
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Meet a sea anemone, sea urchin, a sculpin and other inhabitants of a tide pool through poems (in...

Oceans
By: Seymour Simon
Age Level: 6-9 years old

Oil Spill
By: Melvin Berger
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Did you know that an oil spill occurs somewhere in the world almost every day of the year? This...

Olivia's Birds: Saving the Gulf
By: Olivia Bouler
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
One 11 year-old girl can make a difference, as young ornithologist and artist Olivia Bouler has...

Otters Love to Play
By: Jonathan London
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Head to the river, where a frolicsome bunch of otters plays all year round. Follow the baby...

Over and Under the Pond
By: Kate Messner
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Discover the plants and animals that make up the rich, interconnected ecosystem of a mountain...

Pond and River
By: Steve Parker
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction

River
By: Debby Atwell
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Explore the changes that occur through the centuries along a riverbank, from the arrival of the...

River Wild: An Activity Guide to North American Rivers
By: Nancy F. Castaldo
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Learn about the formation of rivers, the water cycle, and the variety of habitats that exist...

Rivers of Sunlight
By: Molly Bang
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
How does the sun keep ocean currents moving and lift fresh water from the seas? What can we do...

Seashells: More Than a Home
By: Melissa Stewart
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Young naturalists discover thirteen seashells in this elegant introduction to the remarkable...

Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems
By: Joyce Sidman
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
From spring’s first thaw to autumn’s chill, the world of the pond is a dramatic place. Though...

The Big Rivers: the Missouri, the Mississippi, and the Ohio
By: Bruce Hiscock
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction

The Boxcar Children: Houseboat Mystery
By: Gertrude Chandler Warner
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny used to live alone in a boxcar. Now they have a home with heir...

The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor
By: Joanna Cole
Age Level: 6-9 years old

The Open Ocean
By: Francesco Pittau, Bernadette Gervais
Age Level: 6-9 years old

The Raft
By: Jim LaMarche
Age Level: 6-9 years old

The Ultimate Book of Water
By: Anne-Sophie Baumann
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Discover the fascinating world of water! From a tiny drop to an enormous ocean, one of Earth's...

The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just
By: Mélina Mangal
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Ernest Everett Just was not like other scientists of his time. His keen observations of sea...

The Water Princess
By: Susan Verde, Georgie Badiel
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
Princess Gie Gie’s kingdom is a beautiful land. But clean drinking water is scarce and she...

Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe
By: Vera B. Williams
Age Level: 6-9 years old

Water Rolls, Water Rises/El agua rueda, el agua sube
By: Pat Mora
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Poetry
Evocative watercolors and short, lyrical poems take readers on a trip, “Around our round world”...

Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems
By: Kate Coombs
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Translucent watercolors and short, varied poems take readers on a trip to the sea. There they...

Water Sources
By: Rebecca Olien
Age Level: 6-9 years old
How much water is on Earth? This title introduces readers to the different places on Earth water...

Water Wonders: The Curious Adventures of Sydney & Symon / Las Maravillas del agua
By: Peter H. Reynolds, Paul A. Reynolds
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
In this bilingual book, two young scientists, Sydney and Symon Starr, a sister and brother team...
Age Level: 9-12 years old


A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams
By: Jen Bryant
Age Level: 9-12 years old
When he wrote poems, he felt as free as the Passaic River as it rushed to the falls. Willie’s...

Caught in the Rapids (Science to the Rescue)
By: Felicia Law
Age Level: 9-12 years old
During a trip to survey a river, Dr. Bea and Joe are suddenly swept into the water, and must use...

Encantado: Pink Dolphin of the Amazon
By: Sy Montgomery
Age Level: 9-12 years old

Flush
By: Carl Hiaasen
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Noah's dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is flushing raw sewage into the...

Make a Splash! A Kid’s Guide to Protecting Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers and Wetlands
By: Cathryn Berger Kaye, Philippe Cousteau
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
This book teaches elementary kids about the earth’s water crisis and empowers them to do...

Muddy Max: The Mystery of Marsh Creek
By: Elizabeth Rusch
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Max and his soil scientist parents live in a marsh where Max discovers mud’s special properties...

One Well: The Story of Water on Earth
By: Rochelle Strauss
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
All water is connected. Every raindrop, lake, underground river and glacier is part of a single...

Paddle-to-the-Sea
By: Holling Clancy Holling
Age Level: 9-12 years old

River of Words: Young Poets and Artists on the Nature of Things
By: Pamela Michael
Age Level: 9-12 years old
The California-based River of Words trains teachers, park naturalists, and others to incorporate...

Rivers: A Visual History from River to Sea
By: Peter Goes
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Our seas and rivers tell a compelling story about our planet. Take a journey along the most...

Science Comics: Sharks: Nature's Perfect Hunter
By: Joe Flood
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Sharks often get a bad reputation from movies and television but they’re crucial to a healthy...

Slickety Quick: Poems About Sharks
By: Skila Brown
Age Level: 9-12 years old
A poem about the well-known Great White begins this handsomely illustrated collection of poems...

The Aquarium Book
By: George Ancona
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction

The Negro Speaks of Rivers
By: Langston Hughes
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Poetry
Dazzling watercolors turn Hughes' short poem into an unforgettable glimpse of African...

The Next Wave: The Quest to Harness the Power of the Oceans
By: Elizabeth Rusch
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Journey to the wave-battered coast of the Pacific Northwest to meet some of the engineers and...

Water: A Deep Dive of Discovery
By: Christy Mihaly
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Concept Book
A friendly water droplet character guides children through topics ranging from melting and...

White Water! National Geographic Kids
By: Brenna Maloney
Age Level: 9-12 years old
From hippo attacks on the Okavango River to Chitina headwaters in Alaska, this chapter book is...

Wild River
By: P.J. Petersen
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Twelve-year-old Ryan goes kayaking and fishing on a California river with his older brother,...