Our favorite spring books for children are here! The days are getting warmer, the flowers are blooming, and these kids books about spring are perfect to read in the glorious weather. Enjoy!
Spring has officially arrived!
I’ll always love the way it comes in with the gentlest nudge, a breath of fresh air after the long, dreary days of Winter. With each calm breeze that kisses our skin, our bodies are rejuvenated, filled with warmth, and energy after so much time indoors. While I know it may not feel like Spring in certain parts of the country, there’s no doubt it will soon!
There’s nothing quite like seeing the world erupt into color after months and months of gray.
Bright flowers and dazzling butterflies compete for attention, plants are growing, fruit trees spill their offerings to the ground below, and the crunch of fresh vegetables is mouthwatering. I love when the grass becomes soft under our toes and tiny blooms begin to dot the landscape with color. So long jackets and scarves, hello bathing suits and sandals!
As the days get warmer and gloriously longer, our children have more time to explore the wondrous outdoors. They love nothing more than digging their hands into sun-warmed soil to plant a new garden, watching inchworms creep along bright green leaves, and giggling at ladybugs dancing delicately on their fingers.
These long days ahead, with their sunshine and sun showers, sprinklers, and sports games, lend themselves perfectly to the magic of storytelling — and Spring books for children perfectly capture this beautiful season. So make sure that you pitch a tent in your backyard and gaze at the stars before you head into your sleeping bag, or simply take a break from diving into swimming pools to enjoy some wonderful stories with a glass of ice-cold lemonade.
Here are some of our favorite books spring books for kids celebrating the magic of the outdoors and those first beautiful blooms of the season. Enjoy!
RELATED: We’ve got more than 125 children’s book lists on Happily Ever Elephants. Be sure to check out this link!
Any books that celebrate the longer, sunny days, digging fingers into sun-warmed soil to plant a new garden, or jumping into puddles are fair game! The books on this list celebrate the wonders of the spring season.
Do you have other lists about the seasons?
Of course! Check out our lists about summer, fall, and winter, too!
What is your favorite Spring read-aloud?
I will forever love And Then It’s Spring, by Julie Fogliano and Erin E. Stead, and The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown. Both of these celebrate the magic that arrives with this season, including the beautiful colors and plants that begin to bloom all around us.
Can you recommend books about spring holidays like Easter and Passover?
Absolutely! Check out our lists of Easter books for toddlers and our favorite children’s books about Passover!
RELATED: We’ve got an excellent selection of kindergarten read-alouds on Happily Ever Elephants. Be sure to check out this link!
And Then it’s Spring
By Julie Fogliano and Erin E. Stead
Winter has ended, and a young boy decides it is time to brighten up the world outside. He and his dog thus work hard to cultivate a garden. They dig and plant and water, and then they wait and wait. And then, at last, after much patience, perseverance and dedication, the garden slowly… slowly … starts to bloom.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
The Curious Garden
By Peter Brown
This is a quietly beautiful story about a boy in a dreary town who discovers a straggling garden while out on a walk one day. He decides to care for it, nurturing the garden with love, patience and perseverance, even after it is harmed by the weather. Under his care, the garden grows and grows, and the gorgeous plants and flowers eventually bring life to the city and blue to the skies. This book is stunning both in story and illustration, with themes of determination, environmental activism, and community improvement.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
RELATED: Rain, rain, go away! Looking for great children’s books about rain? Click the link!
Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring
By Kenard Pak
This is one of the most stunning spring books for children! The brook is melting, the days are getting longer, and even the birds are beginning to chirp as one young boy greets the spring and the green that begins to dot the world around him. The illustrations in this book are luminous, and we love how each page is soothing and wondrous as one sweet girl says goodbye to the winter season and hello to spring’s warmth.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
In Our Garden
By Pat Zietlow Miller and Melissa Crowton
In this darling book, Millie has just moved to America from a place across the ocean. Life in her new city feels gray, until Millie has a grand idea that’s soft and bright and makes her bounce. A garden! Her school has just the perfect roof for it, too, but now she has to convince her classmates and teacher to implement her idea. When everyone jumps on board, Millie and her classmates realize it takes patience and lots of work to build a garden. In fact, it takes a whole community! But thanks to the garden, the community comes together and helps Millie’s new city feel more like home.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Abracadabra it’s Spring!
By Anne Sibley O’Brien and Susan Gal
When winter’s chill gives way to the warmth of Spring, the world comes ablaze with color. Bare branches and snow give rise to green shoots, baby birds and fragrant flowers. This is a colorful beauty, with twelve gatefold pages that will mesmerize young children.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
This is the Nest that Robin Built
By Denise Fleming
Robin needs help building his nest! With a little help from his friends, this sweet story shows how we can accomplish so much when we work together to achieve a common goal. The squirrel helps trim the twigs to anchor the robin’s nest. The dog brings the string to wrap around the twigs that anchor the robin’s nest. The horse shares straw, the pig mixes mud, the mouse gathers weeds and the rabbit picks the grass to anchor the robin’s nest. It goes on and on, until the nest is built and the young fledglings that hatch within are ready to fly. For our full review of This is the Nest that Robin Built, click here!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Behold Our Magical Garden: Poems Fresh from a School Garden
By Allan Wolf and Daniel Duncan
If your family or classroom is planting a garden this spring, this is a book you need in your life! These poems, both funny and factual, help cultivate a new generation of young gardeners. From bugs to sunshine to science, these adorable poems – perfectly matched with detailed and darling illustrations – get kids both excited and curious about gardening. A perfect poetry book to celebrate the season!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Color Wonder Hooray for Spring!
By Chieu Anh Urban
Kiddos will love learning about Spring with this unique book, complete with two interactive spinners that allow them to create colors right in the middle of the flower on the page. This book is a gem for teaching toddlers colors and color mixing, because its two different wheels make it easy to show what happens when, for example, red and yellow are mixed to create orange! This is a fabulous preschool color book that also doubles as a perfec spring book for children!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Miss Rumphius
By Barbara Cooney
This will always be a favorite of mine! If you have children who long to make the world a more beautiful place, this timeless story is a must. Miss Rumphius, has a desire to do three things: live by the sea, travel, and beautify her surroundings. With some great big wanderlust and some small but mighty lupine seeds, the “lupine lady” left her legacy blooming all along the coast of Maine.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Plant the Tiny Seed
By Christie Matheson
If you are looking for a lively and fun interactive book to get your kids excited about the coming of Spring, this sweet story is a must! Plant the Tiny Seed is a fabulous book to get little ones engaged in the idea of planting gardens – they can wiggle their fingers to water the seeds, clap to make the sun shine, and even shoo away pesky snails. Your kids will delight in watching tiny seedlings grow into beautiful flowers, resulting in a vibrant garden filled with bees, butterflies and hummingbirds too.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons
By Julie Fogliano and Julie Morstad
Everyone knows I adore this author/illustrator team, and this book simply sings. Beautiful poems spotlighting random days throughout the year convey the beauty of each season. Starting and ending on March 20th, it is a perfect read to celebrate the start of spring!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
RELATED: Looking for wonderful books that celebrate our beautiful planet? Check out these awesome earth day books for kids!
When Spring Comes
By Kevin Henkes and Laura Dronzek
We love this beautiful book that shows what the world outside is like before Spring comes, and how it changes with the arrival of warm weather and sunshine. Henkes uses alliteration and figurative language to showcase what happens when the seasons change, perfectly capturing the wonders of our natural world and the awakening of plants and animals.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Planting a Rainbow
By Lois Ehlert
How do you plant a rainbow? Buy bulbs and seeds, plant them in the dirt, and care for them until they grow! A beautiful board book that will give your littlest kids a wonderful primary on both colors and flowers.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Busy Spring: Nature Wakes Up
By Sean Taylor, Alex Morss and Cinyee Chiu
Welcome spring with two children and their dad as they discover all the ways nature wakes up from its long slumber. Green dots the world, birds chirp, bees buzz, and there is so much to learn. This is a both a celebration and exploration of spring, with scientific facts contained in the back of the story to explain the behaiors of various plants and animals. This is a stunning spring book for children!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Because of an Acorn
By Lola Schaefer, Adam Schaefer, Frann Preston-Cannon
I love the way this book so beautifully illustrates the circle of life! Because of an acorn, a tree will grow, a bird will make a nest, and a seed will become a flower. This book is a wonderful tool to highlight how the ecosystem is symbiotic, with all parts connected and working together. The die-cut pages and very simple text make this a fabulous book for your youngest readers!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt
By Kate Messner
A fabulous companion to Over and Under the Snow, this book shows what happens above and below the soil. Above the soil, the gardens are abuzz with green leaves, fragrant flowers and ripe colorful fruit. But below the soil, there are worms burrowing, snakes slithering and other animals making their homes in the garden. Love!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
A Seed is Sleepy
By Diana Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long
This is another beauty, one that intrigues young kids who have obsessions with seeds! Whether your children love collecting them, planting them, or imagining what may sprout from them, this book answers so many of the big questions kids have about seeds. A perfect introductory read. Gorgeous illustrations combine with fascinating facts to make this spring book for children a total gem!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
RELATED: Are your kids beginning to read? Check out our awesome lists of easy to read kindergarten books and books for beginning readers!
Break out your spring books for children to enjoy in this warm weather!
Spring has officially arrived!
I’ll always love the way it comes in with the gentlest nudge, a breath of fresh air after the long, dreary days of Winter. With each calm breeze that kisses our skin, our bodies are rejuvenated, filled with warmth, and energy after so much time indoors. While I know it may not feel like Spring in certain parts of the country, there’s no doubt it will soon!
There’s nothing quite like seeing the world erupt into color after months and months of gray.
Children’s books about spring celebrate nature’s vibrance
Bright flowers and dazzling butterflies compete for attention, plants are growing, fruit trees spill their offerings to the ground below, and the crunch of fresh vegetables is mouthwatering. I love when the grass becomes soft under our toes and tiny blooms begin to dot the landscape with color. So long jackets and scarves, hello bathing suits and sandals!
As the days get warmer and gloriously longer, our children have more time to explore the wondrous outdoors. They love nothing more than digging their hands into sun-warmed soil to plant a new garden, watching inchworms creep along bright green leaves, and giggling at ladybugs dancing delicately on their fingers.
These long days ahead, with their sunshine and sun showers, sprinklers, and sports games, lend themselves perfectly to the magic of storytelling — and Spring books for children perfectly capture this beautiful season. So make sure that you pitch a tent in your backyard and gaze at the stars before you head into your sleeping bag, or simply take a break from diving into swimming pools to enjoy some wonderful stories with a glass of ice-cold lemonade.
Here are some of our favorite books spring books for kids celebrating the magic of the outdoors and those first beautiful blooms of the season. Enjoy!
RELATED: We’ve got more than 125 children’s book lists on Happily Ever Elephants. Be sure to check out this link!
Frequently asked questions
What books should I read this Spring?Any books that celebrate the longer, sunny days, digging fingers into sun-warmed soil to plant a new garden, or jumping into puddles are fair game! The books on this list celebrate the wonders of the spring season.
Do you have other lists about the seasons?
Of course! Check out our lists about summer, fall, and winter, too!
What is your favorite Spring read-aloud?
I will forever love And Then It’s Spring, by Julie Fogliano and Erin E. Stead, and The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown. Both of these celebrate the magic that arrives with this season, including the beautiful colors and plants that begin to bloom all around us.
Can you recommend books about spring holidays like Easter and Passover?
Absolutely! Check out our lists of Easter books for toddlers and our favorite children’s books about Passover!
RELATED: We’ve got an excellent selection of kindergarten read-alouds on Happily Ever Elephants. Be sure to check out this link!
The Essential List of Spring Books for Children!
And Then it’s Spring
By Julie Fogliano and Erin E. Stead
Winter has ended, and a young boy decides it is time to brighten up the world outside. He and his dog thus work hard to cultivate a garden. They dig and plant and water, and then they wait and wait. And then, at last, after much patience, perseverance and dedication, the garden slowly… slowly … starts to bloom.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
The Curious Garden
By Peter Brown
This is a quietly beautiful story about a boy in a dreary town who discovers a straggling garden while out on a walk one day. He decides to care for it, nurturing the garden with love, patience and perseverance, even after it is harmed by the weather. Under his care, the garden grows and grows, and the gorgeous plants and flowers eventually bring life to the city and blue to the skies. This book is stunning both in story and illustration, with themes of determination, environmental activism, and community improvement.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
RELATED: Rain, rain, go away! Looking for great children’s books about rain? Click the link!
Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring
By Kenard Pak
This is one of the most stunning spring books for children! The brook is melting, the days are getting longer, and even the birds are beginning to chirp as one young boy greets the spring and the green that begins to dot the world around him. The illustrations in this book are luminous, and we love how each page is soothing and wondrous as one sweet girl says goodbye to the winter season and hello to spring’s warmth.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
In Our Garden
By Pat Zietlow Miller and Melissa Crowton
In this darling book, Millie has just moved to America from a place across the ocean. Life in her new city feels gray, until Millie has a grand idea that’s soft and bright and makes her bounce. A garden! Her school has just the perfect roof for it, too, but now she has to convince her classmates and teacher to implement her idea. When everyone jumps on board, Millie and her classmates realize it takes patience and lots of work to build a garden. In fact, it takes a whole community! But thanks to the garden, the community comes together and helps Millie’s new city feel more like home.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Abracadabra it’s Spring!
By Anne Sibley O’Brien and Susan Gal
When winter’s chill gives way to the warmth of Spring, the world comes ablaze with color. Bare branches and snow give rise to green shoots, baby birds and fragrant flowers. This is a colorful beauty, with twelve gatefold pages that will mesmerize young children.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
This is the Nest that Robin Built
By Denise Fleming
Robin needs help building his nest! With a little help from his friends, this sweet story shows how we can accomplish so much when we work together to achieve a common goal. The squirrel helps trim the twigs to anchor the robin’s nest. The dog brings the string to wrap around the twigs that anchor the robin’s nest. The horse shares straw, the pig mixes mud, the mouse gathers weeds and the rabbit picks the grass to anchor the robin’s nest. It goes on and on, until the nest is built and the young fledglings that hatch within are ready to fly. For our full review of This is the Nest that Robin Built, click here!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Behold Our Magical Garden: Poems Fresh from a School Garden
By Allan Wolf and Daniel Duncan
If your family or classroom is planting a garden this spring, this is a book you need in your life! These poems, both funny and factual, help cultivate a new generation of young gardeners. From bugs to sunshine to science, these adorable poems – perfectly matched with detailed and darling illustrations – get kids both excited and curious about gardening. A perfect poetry book to celebrate the season!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Color Wonder Hooray for Spring!
By Chieu Anh Urban
Kiddos will love learning about Spring with this unique book, complete with two interactive spinners that allow them to create colors right in the middle of the flower on the page. This book is a gem for teaching toddlers colors and color mixing, because its two different wheels make it easy to show what happens when, for example, red and yellow are mixed to create orange! This is a fabulous preschool color book that also doubles as a perfec spring book for children!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Miss Rumphius
By Barbara Cooney
This will always be a favorite of mine! If you have children who long to make the world a more beautiful place, this timeless story is a must. Miss Rumphius, has a desire to do three things: live by the sea, travel, and beautify her surroundings. With some great big wanderlust and some small but mighty lupine seeds, the “lupine lady” left her legacy blooming all along the coast of Maine.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Plant the Tiny Seed
By Christie Matheson
If you are looking for a lively and fun interactive book to get your kids excited about the coming of Spring, this sweet story is a must! Plant the Tiny Seed is a fabulous book to get little ones engaged in the idea of planting gardens – they can wiggle their fingers to water the seeds, clap to make the sun shine, and even shoo away pesky snails. Your kids will delight in watching tiny seedlings grow into beautiful flowers, resulting in a vibrant garden filled with bees, butterflies and hummingbirds too.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons
By Julie Fogliano and Julie Morstad
Everyone knows I adore this author/illustrator team, and this book simply sings. Beautiful poems spotlighting random days throughout the year convey the beauty of each season. Starting and ending on March 20th, it is a perfect read to celebrate the start of spring!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
RELATED: Looking for wonderful books that celebrate our beautiful planet? Check out these awesome earth day books for kids!
When Spring Comes
By Kevin Henkes and Laura Dronzek
We love this beautiful book that shows what the world outside is like before Spring comes, and how it changes with the arrival of warm weather and sunshine. Henkes uses alliteration and figurative language to showcase what happens when the seasons change, perfectly capturing the wonders of our natural world and the awakening of plants and animals.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Planting a Rainbow
By Lois Ehlert
How do you plant a rainbow? Buy bulbs and seeds, plant them in the dirt, and care for them until they grow! A beautiful board book that will give your littlest kids a wonderful primary on both colors and flowers.
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Busy Spring: Nature Wakes Up
By Sean Taylor, Alex Morss and Cinyee Chiu
Welcome spring with two children and their dad as they discover all the ways nature wakes up from its long slumber. Green dots the world, birds chirp, bees buzz, and there is so much to learn. This is a both a celebration and exploration of spring, with scientific facts contained in the back of the story to explain the behaiors of various plants and animals. This is a stunning spring book for children!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Because of an Acorn
By Lola Schaefer, Adam Schaefer, Frann Preston-Cannon
I love the way this book so beautifully illustrates the circle of life! Because of an acorn, a tree will grow, a bird will make a nest, and a seed will become a flower. This book is a wonderful tool to highlight how the ecosystem is symbiotic, with all parts connected and working together. The die-cut pages and very simple text make this a fabulous book for your youngest readers!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt
By Kate Messner
A fabulous companion to Over and Under the Snow, this book shows what happens above and below the soil. Above the soil, the gardens are abuzz with green leaves, fragrant flowers and ripe colorful fruit. But below the soil, there are worms burrowing, snakes slithering and other animals making their homes in the garden. Love!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
A Seed is Sleepy
By Diana Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long
This is another beauty, one that intrigues young kids who have obsessions with seeds! Whether your children love collecting them, planting them, or imagining what may sprout from them, this book answers so many of the big questions kids have about seeds. A perfect introductory read. Gorgeous illustrations combine with fascinating facts to make this spring book for children a total gem!
BUY THIS BOOK FROM:
RELATED: Are your kids beginning to read? Check out our awesome lists of easy to read kindergarten books and books for beginning readers!