Joy of Nature with the National Trust Booklist

As part of this year’s Summer Reading Challenge, take young readers on a journey into the wild with a specially curated selection of books. Handpicked by National Trust rangers, Rosie Holdsworth and Ajay Tegala, and author, Ben Lerwill, these titles are perfect for sparking curiosity, celebrating the great outdoors, and encouraging a love for nature.

About National Trust

The National Trust is an independent conservation charity founded in 1895 by three people: Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley, who saw the importance of the nation’s heritage and open spaces and wanted to preserve them for everyone to enjoy. Today, across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, we continue to look after places so people and nature can thrive.

We care for more than 250,000 hectares of countryside, 890 miles of coastline, 1 million collection items and 500 historic properties, gardens and nature reserves. In 2023/24 we received 25 million visitors to our pay for entry sites. The National Trust is for everyone – we were founded for the benefit of the whole nation, and our 5.4 million members, funders and donors, and tens of thousands of volunteers support our work to care for nature, beauty, history for everyone, for ever.

The Books

Very Young Readers  

• Listen to the Birds by Marion Billet: This book is a rare thing; a book with noisy buttons that toddlers find hilarious, that doesn’t immediately make you want to throw it out of the window. The bird noises are real-life recordings of some iconic British birds, and the illustrations are really cute too. Entertaining, informative and not immediately infuriating; a huge toddler success! — Rosie Holdsworth

• Lifesize by Sophy Henn: A simple but exciting way of helping very young readers to relate to the animal world, with plenty of fascinating facts to accompany the illustrations. — Ben Lerwill

Picture Books  

• Mouse’s Wood by Alice Melvin: This is the children’s book I *WISH* I’d written. It’s absolutely beautiful. The incredible illustrations, the glorious way it describes the seasons, the little surprises in all the animals’ lift-the-flap houses, the gentle narrative of Mouse’s year, the nature facts as a little treat at the end… I adore everything about it and have bought it for every birth, Christmas and toddler birthday I’ve encountered since I discovered it. It’s a totally gorgeous book and a firm favourite in our house.  — Rosie Holdsworth

• Tidy by Emily Gravett: This is a really fun rhyming picture book with beautiful illustrations and an important message about looking after nature. I’m not sure whether the fact I can recite the entire book from memory is testament to the quality of the prose or the fact my toddler’s demanded I read it again and again, but either way – that must be the sign of a great kids’ book! — Rosie Holdsworth

• The Complete Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem: A collection of simple tales about simple mouse-folk who live in a rambling hedgerow and get up to all the wholesome activities you’d expect of good honest mice. For me it’s the detail of the illustrations and the cut-away diagrams of the mice’s houses that really makes these books special, but child or adult, you can’t help but be charmed by the residents of Brambly Hedge.  — Rosie Holdsworth

• The Oak Tree by Julia Donaldson and Victoria Sandøy: A lovely biography of an oak tree which tells the story of humans’ intimate connection with trees across time. It’s such a simple idea for a story but manages to really pack a punch and highlight the cultural importance of trees and the significance of nature connection for societies through time. — Rosie Holdsworth

• Moon: night-time around the world by Patricia Hegarty and Britta Teckentrup: This is a cosy, sleepy book about the waxing and waning moon and night time across different habitats. The illustrations are gorgeous and it’s a perfect bed time book to settle down with after a busy day. — Rosie Holdsworth

• There’s No Deer Around Here by Andy Hussey and Rosie Venner: I have chosen this book because I this it’s great! I really love the beautiful illustrations and the joyful text – it reminds me of the books I enjoyed as a child, but with strong environmental/conservation messages cleverly woven in. I love the way that all of the clues (wildlife tracks and signs) are identified throughout the story. — Ajay Tegala

Early Reader Books 

• Don’t Squish a Slug by Yussef Rafik: I have chosen this book because it is a wonderful celebration of brilliant bugs! Yussef is a bit of a legend, through his children’s TV work – such as Bugface, which educated children about how fascinating and important insects are, dispelling myths and challenging readers to appreciate and admire rather than have a fear of ‘creepy crawlies’ – messages we spread to our visiting school groups here on the National Trust’s Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve. — Ajay Tegala

• I am the Seed that Grew the Tree: A truly lovely book to dip into over and over again, with a short but beautiful nature poem chosen for every day of the year. We used to go through it as a family, picking our favourites. — Ben Lerwill

• The Grumpy Old Sailor by Janice Armstrong & Meilo So: I picked this up for my children ten years ago on a trip to Shetland, and fell in love with it. The language is wonderful and it paints a really vivid picture of life on a Scottish island. — Ben Lerwill

• The Mousehole Cat by Antonia Barber & Nicola Bayley: This is just a joy to read, with a far higher word-count than many picture books and a starring role for the Cornish coast as a wild and wonderful place. — Ben Lerwill

Middle Grade Books 

• The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris: A gorgeous book of poetry and illustration focusing on a selection of words from the natural world that were lost from the children’s dictionary. This is a glorious celebration of nature, wildlife and the power of words which is a firm staple in our house.  — Rosie Holdsworth

• Island of the blue dolphins by Scott O’Dell (fiction): I’ve been trying to track down a book I read when I was 10, about a girl who builds a house out of whale bones. Re-reading it as an adult, it’s pretty dark in places (there’s a lot of death!), but I could completely see why it grabbed my 10-year-old imagination and I fell in love with it all over again. The descriptions of animals, plants, food, landscapes and seasons are so rich and complete, you can’t help but be transported to the Island. It’s a brilliant story of resilience, independence and adventure with some challenging themes. I’m pretty sure this book changed my life when I was 10, and I’m so glad I tracked it back down! — Rosie Holdsworth 

• The Explorer by Katherine Rundell (fiction): My children both adored this book. It takes readers on an adventure to the heart of the Amazon rainforest, with evocative descriptions of the all-enfolding sights, sounds and smells. — Ben Lerwill   

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