Earth Day

Every April, we honor our planet on Earth Day with a selection of works celebrating the natural world. With titles ranging from stories of wilderness survival to nonfiction works about conservation and sustainability, this Collection features a broad spectrum of ideas regarding nature and our role within it.

Leaves of Grass

by Walt Whitman

Publication year 1855

Genre Poetry Collection, Fiction

Themes Hope, Joy, Love, Death, Future, Appearance & Reality, Environment, Place, Space, Self Discovery, Community, Nation, Beauty, Equality, Literature, New Age, Religion & Spirituality

Tags American Literature, Philosophy, Classic Fiction, Free Verse, Love & Sexuality, Grief & Death, Science & Nature

The first edition of Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman, was published in 1855. A slim volume of 95 pages, it contained 12 untitled poems and a 10-page preface, also untitled. The poem that came to be known as “Song of Myself” took up more than half of the book. Although Whitman designed, financed, and published Leaves of Grass himself, there is no author’s name on the title page. However, the frontispiece features a picture of Whitman: He... Read Leaves of Grass Summary

Let Me Hear a Rhyme

by Tiffany D. Jackson

Publication year 2019

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Music, Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Perseverance, Fear, Grief, Hate & Anger, Love, Joy, Hope, Guilt, Memory, Nostalgia, Regret, Revenge, Shame & Pride, Equality, Justice, Safety & Danger, Loyalty & Betrayal, Trust & Doubt, Truth & Lies, Power & Greed, Appearance & Reality, Environment, Daughters & Sons, Family, Friendship, Siblings, Mothers, Race, Language, Community

Tags Realistic Fiction, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Historical Fiction, Grief & Death, Modern Classic Fiction, World History, Music

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Lifeboat 12

by Susan Hood

Publication year 2018

Genre Novel/Book in Verse, Fiction

Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Coming of Age, Environment

Tags Historical Fiction, Survival Fiction, World War II, Action & Adventure, Children`s Literature, Military & War, World History

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Litany

by Billy Collins

Publication year 2002

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Love, Literature, Appearance & Reality, Truth & Lies, Environment, Marriage

Tags Free Verse, Lyric Poem, Comedy & Satire, American Literature, Love & Sexuality

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Little Men

by Louisa May Alcott

Publication year 1871

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Education, Friendship, Coming of Age, Forgiveness, Joy, Love, Femininity, Masculinity, Childhood & Youth, Animals, Environment, Place, Mothers, Teamwork, Self Discovery, Community, Loyalty & Betrayal, Religion & Spirituality, Truth & Lies

Tags Classic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Children`s Literature

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Living Downstream

by Sandra Steingraber

Publication year 1997

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Themes Environment, Animals, Food, Place, Politics & Government, Economics, Education, War, Nation

Tags Science & Nature, Health, Politics & Government, Social Justice, Education, Education, Gender & Feminism

... Read Living Downstream Summary

Lone Women

by Victor Lavalle

Publication year 2023

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Guilt, Femininity, Gender Identity, Race, Environment, Family, Community

Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, World History, Historical Fiction, Western, Fantasy

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Lost In The Barrens

by Farley Mowat

Publication year 1956

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Perseverance, Indigenous Identity, Environment, Friendship

Tags Action & Adventure, Historical Fiction, Survival Fiction, Children`s Literature, Education, Education, Classic Fiction

Lost in the Barrens is a 1956 middle grade novel based loosely on the lived experiences of author Farley Mowat. Mowat’s experiences in the remote wilderness of northern Canada inspired an adult version of the saga, People of the Deer (1952), and the children’s adaptation. He is known for blending survival narratives with intricate details about the Canadian northern wilderness. Mowat is best known for Never Cry Wolf (1963), which Disney adapted for film in... Read Lost In The Barrens Summary

MaddAddam

by Margaret Atwood

Publication year 2013

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Science & Technology, Safety & Danger, Religion & Spirituality, Order & Chaos, Loyalty & Betrayal, Power & Greed, Good & Evil, Art, Mothers, Fathers, Siblings, Family, Hope, Environment, Future

Tags Science Fiction, Fantasy

Margaret Atwood’s novel MaddAddam, published in 2013, completes her post-apocalyptic MaddAddam trilogy that begins with Oryx and Crake (2003) and continues with The Year of the Flood (2009). The trilogy takes place in the aftermath of a destroyed technological dystopia, a world in which corporations have totalitarian control. Atwood, an award-winning Canadian author, has been a prolific writer of poetry, short stories, novels, and many other forms since the early 1960s. She is known for... Read MaddAddam Summary

Mean Spirit

by Linda Hogan

Publication year 1990

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Indigenous Identity, Race, The Past, Environment, Power & Greed

Tags Historical Fiction, Western, Magical Realism, American Literature, Education, Education, Mystery & Crime Fiction, World History

Mean Spirit (1990) is the first novel by Chickasaw author Linda Hogan. Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1991, it was well-reviewed and established Hogan as an important Indigenous author. The novel tells the story of what came to be known as the Osage murders, a string of killings in Oklahoma’s Osage country after oil was discovered on Osage land. The murders were ultimately discovered to have been the result of not only... Read Mean Spirit Summary

Meg Merrilies

by John Keats

Publication year 1818

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Environment, Aging, Femininity

Tags Lyric Poem, British Literature, Science & Nature

“Meg Merrilies” (sometimes titled “Old Meg she was a gipsy” or simply “old Meg”) is a short, playful ballad by the English Romantic poet John Keats. It was written on Keats’s walking tour of northern England and Scotland in 1818. At the time, Keats was worried about the health of his brother, Tom, and about his own health; the tuberculosis that would soon kill Tom had already begun to manifest in Keats. While his doctor... Read Meg Merrilies Summary

Mending Wall

by Robert Frost

Publication year 1914

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Environment

Tags American Literature, Education, Education, Classic Fiction

A meditative lyric poem on the boundaries between people, “Mending Wall” was first published in 1914 in North of Boston, a collection of poetry by the American poet Robert Frost. “Mending Wall” is one of Frost’s most popular and anthologized works. It exemplifies the themes which came to define his poetry. Set in a rural American wood, its honest, colloquial tone belies a psychologically deep and ambiguous reality. The poem’s most quotable lines exhort two... Read Mending Wall Summary

Merchants of Doubt

by Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway

Publication year 2010

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Economics, Environment

Tags Business & Economics, Science & Nature, Climate Change, World History, Politics & Government

Written by historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (2010) is a nonfiction account of how a loose-knit group of scientists—Fred Seitz, Fred Singer, Bill Nierenberg, and Robert Jastrow—with similar political agendas worked to prevent government regulation by creating the appearance of scientific debate on several topics. These topics included smoking (both first- and secondhand hand... Read Merchants of Doubt Summary