Environment & Sustainability

By Claire Saxby

Illustrated by Jess Racklyeft

Can you see the forest on this misty-morning mountain? Can you see where the tree stands? It is the tallest in this forest of tall trees. This tree is older than those who find it, younger than the land it grows from. Between sapwood and heartwood, water rises and energy flows. Listen to the leaves bustle. Smell the forest air. This is the world of the tree.

In the vein of Iceberg - marrying deep scientific research, lyrical language and stunning illustrations - multi-award-winning and highly acclaimed creators Claire Saxby and Jess Racklyeft return with a change in environment, from ocean to land. Their new collaboration follows a mighty tree, from the bottom of its roots up to the tips of its upper branches.

By Diane Lucas and Ben Tyler

Illustrated by Emma Long

It's yekke, early dry season. Kundenge karrire kunwarddehwardde. Let's walk the rock country. Wardi karribolknan, let's see what we can see in Gagudju, Kakadu.

Ben Tyler and Diane Lucas share stories, knowledge and their love of the land on a walk through one of Australia's most ancient and beautiful ecosystems, introducing Kundjeyhmi language, one of the Bininj Kunwok languages of Kakadu and western Arnhem Land, along the way.

Look into these lush green bushes.
We might find something . . . There is alyurr!
Kakkak Kapindi, my mother's mother, told us alyurr are the Lightning people's children. When the rains begin, they come out of the soil. As they grow, they shed their skins and their bright colours are revealed. Soon they will find a mate.

Emma Long's detailed and beautifully rendered images bring to vivid life the rich and varied plant and animal life of this unique place, encouraging young and old to see, hear, smell and feel the land and experience how Aboriginal people have lived and walked Country for thousands of years.

From the creators of Walking in Gagudju Country: Exploring the Monsoon Forest, CBCA shortlisted for the 2022 Eve Pownall Award and the New Illustrator Award:

'This information-laden book, complete with glossary, brims with life, beauty and magic. It is a delightful read for primary school children.' Books+Publishing

'Allows young readers to learn as they enjoy, this is a story that encourages respect for and harmony with nature.' Readings Booksellers

By David Gullan

Illustrated by Suzanne Houghton

Who is home in the hollow?

Tree hollows are very special places that provide animals, both big and small, with a space to nest and feel safe.

Explore life in a tree hollow in the Australian bush and meet the native creatures who come to call a hollow a home. You’ll be surprised just how many choose to move in!

You’ll also discover the important role tree hollows play in the environment and how we can help protect them. Reading level varies from child to child, but we recommend this book for ages 5 to 9.

'In Australia almost 350 species of animal need a tree hollow for resting, nesting or hiding. This book is sure to pique curiosity, stimulate imagination, spark conversation and foster conservation, by illuminating the parade of diverse animals homed over the evolution of a single tree hollow. With dreamy illustrations and lyrical prose Life in a Hollow is sure to become a treasured go-to.' — Abbie Mitchell, author of A Hollow Is a Home (CSIRO Publishing, 2019)

By Claire Saxby

Illustrated by Alicia Rogerson

You will find me where land meets sea…

Saltmarshes are full of energy and life. They protect our coastlines, and provide food and shelter for migratory birds and microscopic plants and animals. Most of all, saltmarshes are places of discovery and wonder.

With lyrical text and captivating illustrations Secrets of the Saltmarsh offers a close-up look at the fascinating world of saltmarsh wetlands.

Reading level varies from child to child, but we recommend this book for ages 5–9.

By Phil Cummings

Illustrated by Sally Soweol Han

You carry hope and future need
With careful footprint, plant the seed.
Breathe... Yes, breathe.

Embark on a lyrical, meditative journey through nature's tapestry, where every step you take leaves a legacy of wonder and protection for the environment. Explore forests and mountains, cities and fields, and animals in their natural habitats as you ponder the footprint humans have left on the Earth.

From CBCA award-winning creators Phil Cummings and Sally Soweol Han.

By Victor Steffensen

Illustrated by Sandra Steffensen

Take a walk with Uncle Kuu in The Trees, a picture book about caring for Country and respect for Indigenous knowledge.

Looking after the trees is important for keeping Country happy and healthy. First Nations People have cared for the trees on Country for thousands of years. In return, the trees look after the people and provide them with gifts of seeds, flowers, wood and more. This creates the balance between giving and taking from the land.
 
Featuring stunning artwork by Sandra Steffensen, The Trees is a powerful and timely story to help future generations manage our landscapes and ensure that they thrive. At the back of the book, you will find lyrics to a song written by author Victor Steffensen with the title, ‘We are the Trees’, and a QR code to watch the song's YouTube video.

This book is the follow-up to Victor Steffensen’s Looking after Country with Fire, which explains Aboriginal burning practices for children.

By Suzanne Houghton

Illustrated by Suzanne Houghton

Sparkling, brightly coloured Christmas beetles usually appear in the heat of December — a sign that the festive season has begun.

But recently they have been hard to find. We aren’t seeing them in the eucalyptus trees, or dancing around lights at night. These shimmering, shiny beetles are disappearing from our summers. Where have they gone?

Where Are All the Christmas Beetles? takes us on a lyrical discovery of these fascinating creatures and explores the possible reasons for their decrease in numbers.

By Aunty Munya Andrews

Illustrated by Charmaine Ledden-Lewis

Explore the seasons on Bardi Country with Aunty Munya in this new children's series.

Ask Aunty: Seasons is a delightful and educational picture book for children aged 5 to 10 years that introduces First Nations seasonal calendars.
 
Have you ever been excited for the first day of summer, only to be disappointed when it arrives cold and rainy? For First Nations People, the seasons don’t change when the calendar does. Instead, we can look for changes in plants, animals, water, weather and the stars to mark the start of a new season.
 
Aunty Munya explains how there are six seasons on her Country. Mankal is the rainy season, bringing strong winds from the ocean, while Barrgan is the season when bush fruits are most plentiful.
 
With stunning illustrations by Charmaine Ledden-Lewis, Ask Aunty: Seasons encourages all readers to develop a deeper connection with the land, waters and sky.

By Isabel Thomas

Illustrated by Alex Paterson

Discover how YOU can cut greenhouse gases and tread more lightly on the planet. Become an eco-warrior, not an eco-worrier, with 50 PRACTICAL TIPS to really make a difference!

Our planet is in peril and it needs your help! But the good news is that there are loads of easy ways that you can make a difference. From lift-sharing to switching body sprays, there are so many things you can do to help fight climate change. Complete with myth-busting boxes and counter arguments to put climate-deniers in their place, this is a one-stop guide to transform eco-worried kids into eco-activists. Funny, engaging, practical and timely, it's the ideal book to help readers navigate the world in the greenest possible way, and to really make a difference.

Also available: This Book Is Not Rubbish: 50 Ways to Ditch Plastic, Reduce Rubbish and Save the World!

By Penny Tangey

Illustrated by Peter Baldwin

A funny, feel-good picture book about a grandad doing the wrong things for the right reasons.

My grandad is a rebel. We call him Granbad.

Granbad doesn't believe in rules like screen-time limits or healthy snacks. But he does believe in saving the planet. When a protest to protect native forests doesn't work, he will need to go to new heights to make it right. Good thing he's a rule breaker...

A funny, feel-good story about doing the wrong things for the right reasons.

By Libby Hathorn

Illustrated by Christina Booth

Let's dream of what we can become,

Mother Earth, I am your son.

Food and shelter, climate, water,

Mother Earth, I am your daughter.

Mother Earth is a warm, funny, beautiful collection of nature poems. Written with great sensitivity by multi-award-winning poet and author Libby Hathorn and with superb illustrations by talented artist and illustrator Christina Booth, this is a book to treasure and to celebrate our precious environment - for kids and families, students and teachers alike.

By Zana Fraillon

Illustrated by Ross Morgan

He's old, this gargoyle. Very old. Older than me. Older than anyone. He looks tired. If I had a seat, I would give it to him.

He shuffles past me and stands near the door and watches the city smushing past.

I think I hear him sigh. An echoey, achy, hollow sort of sigh, like the wind when it gusts down lanes and through tunnels and in and out of the big drains that stretch under the city.

This is the moving story of an old gargoyle, forced off his rooftop to make way for a new development in a barren cityscape, and the child who encounters him on an overcrowded train. When the gargoyle is ordered off the train, he leaves his suitcase behind. The child opens the case and unleashes the gargoyle's many memories of the city and its inhabitants. When the case crumbles, leaving nothing but a small seed, the child decides to find a place to bring the gargoyle, and the soul of the city, back.

An unforgettable story about conservation, ageing and legacies which will leave a forever imprint on your heart.

By Trace Balla

Illustrated by Trace Balla

WINNER: CBCA Book of the Year, Younger Readers, 2017

Join Clancy and Uncle Egg on a rambling, rockhopping adventure in Gariwerd (the Grampians), to find the source of the Glenelg River. A story about following your flow, and the unexpected places you may go.

Praise for Rivertime:

'The drawings and text teem with vitality and wonder. Verdict: enchanting.' Herald Sun

'A reminder for mid-primary school kids that communing with nature has its own rewards.' Junior Books + Publishing

'A gentle picture book about the beauty of nature.' The Age

'A class act.' The Australian

By Jeannie Baker

In spectacular and astonishing collage detail, Jeannie Baker captures the deep beauty, mystery, and hidden vitality of the desert landscape – and why it needs our protection.

Chico’s grandpa has taken him on holiday where he grew up as a child, out in the desert. Chico has no interest in exploring the land – the desert jungle frightens him, and he’d much rather play on his his tablet. Grandpa decides that it is time to show Chico the secrets and the wonders that the desert has to offer so that he will not fear it but, instead, welcome it, embrace it and help protect it. Grandpa shows Chico paths through the cactus and the scrub, teaches Chico the plants' names – ocotillo, cholla, cirios, pin cushion, fishhook – and, soon, Chico begins to understand the wonders of the wild. He learns the value of watching, waiting and listening for all the life that hums within his desert home.

By Bradley Christmas

Heartfelt and poignant, this coming of age story explores father-son relationships, against a backdrop of small town rivalries, buried truths, with themes of sustainability, preserving the past and environmental care.

When Dad goes to jail, Matthew and his mum move to the coast, so mum – an artist – thinks she can renovate her late father’s old place to sell it to get them back on their feet. Matthew strikes up a friendship with Old Bill, an Indigenous man who becomes a father figure to him, and teaches him how to find and eat pippis, fish (and to make a few dollars from it). Dad gets out on parole and moves back in with the family, but his anger fractures the newfound peace and everything is once again at stake, and in peril.

By Clare Atkins

Illustrated by Harrison Vial

A truly unique picture book about a newcomer arriving to an island inhabited by superstitious eggs.

When something strange washes up on the eggs' island, they are scared. It looks like them. But different. What if it hatches? What if there are more of them?

Most of the eggs hope the newcomer will float back to where it came from, but one little egg is not afraid.

Can their friendship prove there is nothing to fear?

By Margrete Lamond & Anthony Bertini

Illustrated by Christopher Nielsen

All it takes is the will to make dreams come true.

JUST ONE BEE is a story of hope, determination and never giving up: the story of One-bee and her dream to revert desolate wastes back to fields of flowers. But to change a desert to meadowland she needs to go it alone because when she comes across another bee, she discovers not only is he hoarding a single precious flower and a queen bee, but he refuses to believe positive change is possible. Other-bee does all he can to quash One-bee's dream. But One-bee's persistence, patience and optimism eventually prove Other-bee wrong, and she shows him how dreams can come true.

HONOURS -2022 CBCA PICTURE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

By Bruce Pascoe

*Winner of the CBCA 2020 Eve Pownall Award for Information Books*

*Winner of the Booksellers' Choice 2020 Children's Book of the Year Award*

*Shortlisted for the 2020 NSW Premier's Literary Awards Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature*

*Shortlisted for the ABIA Book of the Year for Younger Children (ages 7-12)*

*Shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards 2020: Children's*

Age range 10+.

The highly-anticipated junior version of Bruce Pascoe's multi award-winning book.

Bruce Pascoe has collected a swathe of literary awards forDark Emu and now he has brought together the research and compelling first person accounts in a book for younger readers.

Using the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, Bruce Pascoe compellingly argues for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer label for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He allows the reader to see Australia as it was before Europeans arrived — a land of cultivated farming areas, productive fisheries, permanent homes, and an understanding of the environment and its natural resources that supported thriving villages across the continent. Young Dark Emu — A Truer History asks young readers to consider a different version of Australia's history pre-European colonisation.

By Kimberly Engwicht
Illustrated by Kimberly Engwicht

Discover the landscapes of Australia through the vibrant artwork of Aboriginal artist Kimberly Engwicht.

The All Around Us series is a captivating collection of first concepts board books, told through simple narrative.

By Diane Lucas & Ben Tyler
Illustrated by Emma Long

From the author of the bestselling Walking with the Seasons in Kakadu comes this rich and fascinating book bringing together First Nations Australian knowledge and history with Western science. The first of a proposed series of three titles, with the two possible future titles to focus on the rock country and floodplains.

By Maree McCarthy Yoelu
Illustrated by Samantha Fry

*Shortlisted for the 2021 Environment Award for Children's Literature: Picture Fiction*

Great-Grandpa Liman lives in a small house by the sea. There are no lights - just stars as far as the eye can see.

Brother Moon is a powerful story lovingly told by a great-grandfather to his great-grandson. Beneath the dark sky of the Northern Territory, Hippy-Boy is captivated when Great-Grandpa Liman tells him the mysterious story of his brother and how it guides his connection to Country.

Great-Grandpa is a masterful storyteller and, as the tale unfolds, he finally reveals his brother is the moon - a wonder of the universe. Hippy-Boy learns how his great grandfather uses the phases of the moon when he goes hunting and fishing, and why it is important for us all to have an understanding of the natural world.

Liman (Harry Morgan), the author's grandfather, was a respected Wadjigany man - a leader amongst his people and the community. Liman was born at Manjimamany in the Northern Territory in 1916. He was a canoe maker, hunter, community mediator, and a family man who lived off the land and travelled the seas. Liman spoke Batjamalh, his first language, and other languages from the Daly River area.

Teachers' notes available here

By Sally Morgan

Illustrated by Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr

*CBCA 2022 Notable Book: Early childhood*

Another simple, universal story from Sally Morgan - this time a beautifully illustrated celebration of the life of the river. The River takes the reader on a journey of what their eyes can see and their ears can hear. See geen ants crawling, hear frogs croaking, a goanna running, a fish splashing...

Sally Morgan’s beautiful words and Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr’s sensitive artwork combine to make this a unique, distinctive children’s picture book with global appeal. Johnny infuses his illustrations with his fine-art aesthetic and his traditional motifs to bring each page to vivid life.

By Yvette Poshoglian

When everything seems to be going wrong, sometimes you just have to stand up for what you believe in, even if it's just in your own little corner of the world ...

This was meant to be Alice's year to shine, but things are already going wrong...

At school, she's given young environmental activist Greta Thunberg as her pen pal for a fictional writing assignment. Why couldn't Alice get someone easy to write to, like a pop star?

Then she's put in charge of taking the Harmony Day Food Fair online, which seems impossible, especially when she is teamed up with the most annoying boy in her school.

As if she didn't have enough on her plate, Alice gets kicked out of her bedroom by her grandmother coming to stay. And no matter what Alice does, she'll never be able to live up to her infuriating big sister's achievements, right?

Through her letters to Greta, Alice finds herself opening up about her life. And as Alice approaches the hard questions by wondering, 'What would Greta do?', she starts to believe that she can make a difference - a big one.

By Mark Smith

From the author of The Road to Winter trilogy comes an empowering standalone novel about the courage and consequences of taking climate action in a small coastal community.

He'd always accepted the mine and power station were part of Shelbourne. On still nights, the thrum of the turbines echoed down the valley and melded with the sound of the ocean until you couldn't tell them apart.

Hesse lives a small coastal town, where a coalmine and power station are a part of the scenery, and a part of the ever-growing problem of climate change. His mum is a member of a local environmental group campaigning to close the mine and shut down the power station. It's a no-brainer, of course, but Hesse is more interested in surfing-and in Fenna, the new exchange student from the Netherlands.

But when someone seems to be trying to derail the campaign, and his friends' families face losing their jobs, Hesse begins to realise that things are complex.

Even though he's reluctant to step into the spotlight, with Fenna's encouragement he decides it's time to make a stand. Because some things are too important to leave to everyone else. And even one small, nervous voice can make a difference.

When Hesse agrees to speak at a protest meeting he has no idea of the storm he is about to unleash.

If Not Us is Mark Smith's first standalone YA novel following his hugely successful Winter trilogy. It's another great story with an engaging and relatable protagonist, as well as an impassioned plea for climate-change action that will inspire and empower readers of all ages.

By Remy Lai
Illustrated by Remy Lai

Hi! I'm Rainbow and I'm a koala. My mum says it's time for me to go out and find a new home to call my own. But life in the bush can be scary! It's hard to find the perfect tree. A kookaburra keeps laughing at me. It's hot and I'm thirsty and ... do I smell smoke?

From the creator of Pawcasso comes an inspiring graphic novel series for young readers, the perfect introduction to the wonders and perils of the natural world - and how we can all do our part to protect it.