CELEBRATE EARTH DAY BY GETTING BACK TO NATURE

With Earth Day ( April 22) soon upon us, Eliot Schrefer looks at four new children’s picture books that explore the beauty — and adventure — to be found in the natural world.

THE LONELY GIANT

Written and illustrated by Sophie Ambrose Candlewick Press, 32 pp., ages 4- 8 In The Lonely Giant ( eeeE out of four) a giant living in a bustling forest goes about doing what giants are unfortunately prone to do — ripping up trees. The woodland creatures start to disappear, until the giant finds himself all alone in a wasteland. When he finds one last yellow bird, he cages her, but she grows too sad to sing. After he releases his pet, the giant resolves to replant the forest, and, sure enough, the animals return. Though adults might roll their eyes at the transparent environmental allegory, its overtness will only increase its appeal to many young readers. The giant looks like an ordinary human, down to his bitten fingernails, and he’s essentially good- willed. His destructiveness is not the result of villainy but of a lack of awareness, and he’s saved by a little bird who loves him rather than scolds him. Useful stuff, this.

ROBINS! HOW THEY GROW UP

Written and illustrated by Eileen Christelow Clarion Books, 48 pp., ages 6- 9 With wit and exuberance, Eileen Christelow narrates the lives of a family of robins, from their trip up north to roost in a shed through the laying of their eggs and the molting of their young. Robins! ( eeee) is stuffed with information, much of it fascinating and likely to be a surprise even to adult readers. ( In two weeks, a baby robin will eat 14 feet worth of worms!) Christelow made the inspired choice to have this potentially dense non- fiction described by two chatty robin teenagers looking back over their childhood (“First, let’s tell about Dad’s long trip. / You mean before we were born?”), allowing this book to manage the rare trick of being both approachable and rigorous. Robins! doesn’t shy away from harsh realities — the clutch of four eggs leads to only two surviving fledglings — but that honesty will appeal to the young naturalist who prefers nature unvarnished.

WATERSONG

Written by Tim McCanna, illustrated by Richard Smythe Simon & Schuster/ Paula Wiseman Books, 32 pp., ages 4- 8 A solitary fox makes its way through a rainy day, at first just enjoying the musical sounds of falling water and then racing for cover when the storm turns severe. Tim McCanna’s language is both melodious and spare, with only a few evocative words on each page (“squish squelch glop”) that capture both the diversity of water sounds and the music of language. Richard Smythe’s ravishing illustrations mine the depths of grays and blues, zooming in to watch a mouse duck for shelter and then whirling to the sky to show the fox tracking an inundated stream. The narrative is slight, but the beauty of each page is great enough that the story is incidental, making Watersong ( eeeg) the rare book that can satisfy toddlers and bigger kids at the same time.

OVER AND UNDER THE POND

Written by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal Chronicle Books, 48 pp., ages 5- 8 In elegant language (“The water’s a mirror, reflecting the sky. / Sunshine and clouds — then a shadow below”), Over and Under the Pond ( eeee) takes a contemplative journey through an ecosystem, as a young boy and his mother go on a canoe ride to observe the splendor and conflict hidden in what might seem like an ordinary pond. Christopher Silas Neal’s beautiful, blocky art distinguishes the layers of life within and above the water, and the elongated physical shape of this book emphasizes the vertiginous contrasts between the heights of the treetops and the mucky bottom of the pond, where menacing dragonfly larvae lurk. An extensive author’s note and the perfect confluence of art and text make this a more than worthy follow- up to Over and Under the Snow and Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt.