Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian

10 best books like Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian (Margarita Engle): Because, I Am Enough, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever, Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace, Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World, Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle, The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science, One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia, The Secret Subway

Because

Author	Mo Willems
ISBN	1368019013

I knew Mo Willems wrote good books, but they can also be beautiful. I love this book so much. It is dear to me. I think any person who has heard a piece of music and loved it so much that it changed your life in that moment and your life was set on a creative path will understand this story. It is fantastic. I hope...

I Am Enough

Author	Grace Byers
ISBN	0062667122

I Am Enough is the picture book everyone needs

This is a gorgeous, lyrical ode to loving who you are, respecting others, and being kind to one another—from Empire actor and activist Grace Byers and talented newcomer artist Keturah A. Bobo.

This is the perfect gift for mothers and...

A Big Mooncake for Little Star

Author	Grace Lin
ISBN	0316404489

A gorgeous picture book that tells a whimsical origin story of the phases of the moon, from award-winning, bestselling author-illustrator Grace Lin

Pat, pat, pat...

Little Star's soft feet tiptoed to the Big Mooncake.

Little Star loves the delicious Mooncake that she...

The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever

Author	H. Joseph Hopkins
ISBN	1442414022

Unearth the true story of green-thumbed pioneer and activist Kate Sessions, who helped San Diego grow from a dry desert town into a lush, leafy city known for its gorgeous parks and gardens.

Katherine Olivia Sessions never thought she’d live in a place without trees. After all, Kate grew...

Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace

Author

Jen Cullerton Johnson

A while back I read a couple picture books about Wangari Maathai, including Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai and Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa, and I loved them both, and I’m interested in reading her autobiography and her book about the Green Belt Movement,...

Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World

Author	Laurie Lawlor
ISBN	0823423700

In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Silent Spring, here is a biography of the pioneering environmentalist. "Once you are aware of the wonder and beauty of earth, you will want to learn about it," wrote Rachel Carson, the pioneering environmentalist. She wrote Silent Spring,...

Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle

Author	Claire A. Nivola
ISBN	0374380686

Sylvia Earle first lost her heart to the ocean as a young girl when she discovered the wonders of the Gulf of Mexico in her backyard. As an adult, she dives even deeper. Whether she's designing submersibles, swimming with the whales, or taking deep-water walks, Sylvia Earle has dedicated her life to learning...

The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science

Author	Joyce Sidman
ISBN	0544717139

Robert F. Sibert Medal winner

Bugs, of all kinds, were considered to be “born of mud” and to be “beasts of the devil.”  Why would anyone, let alone a girl, want to study and observe them?

One of the first naturalists to observe live insects directly, Maria Sibylla Merian was...

One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia

Author	Miranda Paul
ISBN	1467716081

Plastic bags are cheap and easy to use. But what happens when a bag breaks or is no longer needed? In Njau, Gambia, people simply dropped the bags and went on their way. One plastic bag became two. Then ten. Then a hundred.

The bags accumulated in ugly heaps alongside roads. Water pooled in them,...

The Secret Subway

Author

Shana Corey

From an acclaimed author and a New York Times Best Illustrated artist comes the fascinating, little-known—and true!—story of New York City’s first subway.

New York City in the 1860s was a mess: crowded, disgusting, filled with garbage. You see, way back in 1860, there were no subways,...

Margaret and the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Saved the First Lunar Landing

Author	Dean Robbins
ISBN	0399551859

Margaret Hamilton loved numbers as a young girl. She knew how many miles it was to the moon (and how many back). She loved studying algebra and geometry and calculus and using math to solve problems in the outside world.

Soon math led her to MIT and then to helping NASA put a man on the moon! She handwrote...

A Piglet Named Mercy

Author	Kate DiCamillo
ISBN	0763677531

Every porcine wonder was once a piglet! Celebrate the joy of a new arrival with this endearing picture-book prequel to the New York Times best-selling Mercy Watson series.

Mr. Watson and Mrs. Watson live ordinary lives. Sometimes their lives feel a bit too ordinary. Sometimes they wish something...