Colopy, Cheryl.Dirty, Sacred Rivers. Oxford University Press, 2012.

Dirty, Sacred Riversexplores South Asia’s increasingly urgent water crisis, taking readers on a journey through North India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, from the Himalaya to the Bay of Bengal. The book shows how rivers, traditionally revered by the people of the Indian subcontinent, have in recent decades deteriorated dramatically due to economic progress and gross mismanagement.

Eriksen, Marcus.Junk Raft: An Ocean Voyage and a Rising Tide of Activism to Fight Plastic Pollution.Beacon Press, 2017.

A scientist, activist, and inveterate adventurer, Eriksen is drawn to the sea by a desire to right an environmental injustice. Against long odds and common sense, he and his co-navigator, Joel Paschal, construct a “junk raft” made of plastic trash and set themselves adrift from Los Angeles to Hawaii, with no motor or support vessel, confronting perilous cyclones, food shortages, and a fast decaying raft. As Erikson recounts his struggles to keep afloat, he immerses readers in the deep history of the plastic pollution crisis and the movement that has arisen to combat it.

Greene, Ronnie.Night Fire: Big Oil, Poison Air, and Margie Richard’s Fight to Save Her Town.HarperCollins Publishers, 2008.

Margie Eugene Richard was raised in the shadow of a giant chemical plant operated by Shell, and witnessed her neighbors fall ill amid the toxic waste the plant emitted year after year. Her own sister, Naomi, eventually succumbed to a rare lung disease linked to environmental hazards. Determined to see Shell take responsibility for its actions, Margie and her neighbors— largely poor and with few obvious resources—educated themselves not only on the consequences of environmental poison but also how to fight back.

Jacobs, Chip and Kelly, William J.Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles.Overlook Press, 2008.

Smogtownis the story of pollution, progress, and how an optimistic people confronted the epic struggle against airborne poisons barraging their hometowns. With wit, verve, and a fresh look at history, California based journalists Chip Jacobs and William J. Kelly highlight the bold personalities involved, the corporate-tainted science, the terrifying health costs, the attempts at cleanup, and how the smog battle helped mold the modern-day culture of Los Angeles.

Klein, Naomi. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. Simon & Schuster, 2014.

Klein exposes the myths that are clouding the climate debate. We have been told the market will save us, when in fact the addiction to profit and growth is digging us in deeper every day. We have been told it’s impossible to get off fossil fuels when in fact we know exactly how to do it—it just requires breaking every rule in the “free-market” playbook: reining in corporate power, rebuilding local economies, and reclaiming our democracies.We have also been told that humanity is too greedy and selfish to rise to this challenge. In fact, all around the world, the fight for the next economy and against reckless extraction is already succeeding in ways both surprising and inspiring. Climate change, Klein argues, is a civilizational wake-up call, a powerful message delivered in the language of fires, floods, storms, and droughts. Confronting it is no longer about changing the light bulbs. It’s about changing the world—before the world changes so drastically that no one is safe. Either we leap—or we sink.

Boyle, T.C.A Friend of the Earth.Viking, 2000.

It is the year 2025. Global warming is a reality. The biosphere has collapsed and most mammals—not to mention fish, birds, and frogs—are extinct. Tyrone Tierwater is eking out a bleak living in southern California, managing a pos star’s private menagerie that “only a mother could love”—scruffy hyenas, jackals, warthogs, and three down-at-the-mouth lions.

Butler, Octavia E.Parable of the Sower.Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993.

Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny.

El Akkad, Omar.American War.Alfred A. Knopf, 2017.

Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, and that unmanned drones fill the sky. When her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she begins to grow up shaped by her particular time and place. But not everyone at Camp Patience is who they claim to be. Eventually Sarat is befriended by a mysterious functionary, under whose influence she is turned into a deadly instrument of war.

McEwan, Ian.Solar.Doubleday, 2010.

Dr. Michael Beard’s best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormous fees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientific institutions, and half-heartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. Meanwhile, Michael’s fifth marriage is floundering due to his incessant womanizing. When his professional and personal worlds collide in a freak accident, an opportunity presents itself for Michael to extricate himself from his marital problems, reinvigorate his career, and save the world from environmental disaster. But can a man who has made a mess of his life clean up the messes of humanity?

Atwood, Margaret. The Year of the Flood. Nan A. Talese, 2009.

Set in the visionary future of Atwood’s acclaimed Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood is at once a moving tale of lasting friendship and a landmark work of speculative fiction. In this second book of the MaddAddam trilogy, the long-feared waterless flood has occurred, altering Earth as we know it and obliterating most human life. Among the survivors are Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, who is barricaded inside a luxurious spa. Amid shadowy, corrupt ruling powers and new, gene-spliced life forms, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move, but they can’t stay locked away.

Cavell-Clarke, Steffi.Caring for Earth.Crabtree Publishing, 2018.

This important title introduces environmental stewardship to young readers. Relatable examples show readers how to care for the environment in their own communities, and how even small changes can help address issues in the global community.

Dyer, Janice.Designing Green Communities.Crabtree Publishing, 2018.

Introducing the design thinking process as a vehicle for change, this timely title motivates readers to create environmentally sustainable practices and make them easily accessible in their communities. Beginning with a detailed look at the steps involved in design thinking, readers are guided through the process so they can design their own solutions to big issue—from minimizing pollution to limiting usage of non-renewable energy.

Kaye, Cathryn Berger and Cousteau, Philippe.Going Blue: A Teen Guide to Saving Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands.Free Spirit Publishing, 2010.

Written by service learning expert Cathryn Berger Kaye and ocean spokesperson Philippe Cousteau, Going Blueeducates teens about Earth’s water crisis and gives them tools and inspiration to transform their ideas into action as they plan and do a meaningful service project that benefits our planet’s water system.

Paul, Miranda.One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia.Millbrook Press, 2015.

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, bringing mosquitoes and disease. Some bags were burned, leaving behind a terrible smell. Some were buried, but they strangled gardens. They killed livestock that tried to eat them. Something had to change. Isatou Ceesay was that change. She found a way to recycle the bags and transform her community. This inspirational true story shows how one person's actions really can make a difference in our world.

Smith-Llera, Danielle.Trash Vortex: How Plastic Pollution Is Choking the World’s Oceans.Compass Point Books, 2018.

Millions of tons of plastic slip into oceans every year. Some floats and travels slowly with the currents, endangering the health of marine animals. The rest is hardly visible but far more dangerous. Tiny bits of plastic sprinkle the ocean’s surface or mix into the sandy seafloor and beaches. It ends up inside birds, fish, and other animals, harming them—and ultimately humans. Experts struggle with fear and hope as they work to stop the flood of plastic threatening living organisms across the globe.

Hiaasen, Carl. Hoot. Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.

Everybody loves Mother Paula’s pancakes. Everybody, that is, except the colony of cute but endangered owls that live on the building site of the new restaurant. Can the awkward new kid and his feral friend prank the pancake people out of town?

King, A.S. Me and Marvin Gardens. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2017.

Obe Devlin has problems. His family’s farmland has been taken over by developers. His best friend Tommy abandoned him for the development kids. And he keeps getting nosebleeds, because of the thing he doesn’t like to talk about. So Obe hangs out at the creek by his house, in the last wild patch left, picking up litter and looking for animal tracks. One day, he sees a creature that looks kind of like a large dog, or maybe a small boar. And as he watches it, he realizes it eats plastic. Only plastic.

Suneby, Elizabeth. Iqbal and His Ingenious Idea: How a Science Project Helps One Family and the Planet. Kids Can Press, 2018.

It’s monsoon season in Bangladesh, which means Iqbal’s mother must cook the family’s meals indoors, over an open fire. The smoke from the fire makes breathing difficult for his mother and baby sister, and it’s even making them sick. Hearing them coughing at night worries Iqbal. So when he learns that his school’s upcoming science fair has the theme of sustainability, Iqbal comes up with the perfect idea for his entry: he’ll design a stove that doesn’t produce smoke.

Tsurumi, Andrea. Crab Cake: Turning the Tide Together. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019.

Under the sea, a crab follows its heart and its calling, bringing everyone together in the wake of a disaster. Feed your craving for a hilarious, heart-warming story with Crab Cake, perfect for budding environmentalists, kids learning to cope with mishaps, and every young reader in between.

Vacco, Corina. My Chemical Mountain. Ember, 2014.

Rocked by his father’s recent death and his mother’s sudden compulsion to overeat, Jason lashes out by breaking into the abandoned mills and factories that plague his run-down town. Always by his side are his two best friends, Charlie, a fearless thrill junkie, and Cornpup, a geek inventor whose back is covered with cysts. The boys rage against the noxious pollution that suffocates their town and despise those responsible for it; at the same time, they embrace the danger of their industrial wasteland and boast about living on the edge.