Children's Books for Rewilding

Regenerative Culture Birthing & Caring for Children
#1

howdy all.

i am in the middle of compiling an annotated bibliography of books written specifically for children.

are there any that you recommend or that personally moved you as a child? i am especially interested in hearing about unusual ones (i imagine most on here would include ‘the lorax’ or ‘the giving tree’…)

thanks.

#2

First, apologies if this is a duplicate, but I think my first reply was lost in a spam filter or summat.

Anyway, I’ll expand on it a bit. I suppose it’s a little odd, but at this point in my life, my 2 favourite books are probably children’s books. Whale Brother touches indirectly on rewilding in a couple ways. The obvious one is empathy with Other (in this case, a pod of Orca). The less obvious one I could probably express better if I had a better handle on e-primitive, but it’s the idea that sometimes you have to wait for something to become manifest. That sometimes there are periods where you may see very little change, then all the energy that’s been slowly building is suddenly released.

Erandi’s Braids really only has something very simple to say that’s important for everyone, everywhere, regardless of whether you’re trying to “rewild” or not: to have the courage to care, love & have empathy for others.

#3

I loved all the Jean Craighead George books (My Side of the Mountain, Julie of the Wolves, etc.).

I also really enjoyed the Fire-us trilogy–kids facing a post-apocalyptic world that killed off all the adults.

Watership Down rocks my world every time I read it (once a year).

#4

I liked Gary Paulsen’s The Hatchet which I read in 4th grade.

#5

Have you read Daniel Quinn’s, book Work Work Work… and
Tom Brown Jr. work such as The Tracker? I recommend them.

#6

I love “The Story of the Root Children” by Sybil Von Offers and I second “Hatchet”. “The Secret Garden” is also good.

#7

[quote=“WildeRix, post:3, topic:347”]I loved all the Jean Craighead George books (My Side of the Mountain, Julie of the Wolves, etc.).

I also really enjoyed the Fire-us trilogy–kids facing a post-apocalyptic world that killed off all the adults.

Watership Down rocks my world every time I read it (once a year).[/quote]

who wrote the fire-us trilogy?
sounds like something I may wish to read to the little one

#8

[quote=“tsuchi akurei, post:7, topic:347”]who wrote the fire-us trilogy?
sounds like something I may wish to read to the little one[/quote]

Jennifer Armstrong and Nancy Butcher. I have them on one of my squidoo lenses.

#9

I wanted to be the kid in Hatchet

Also, Island of the Blue Dolphin and Julie of the Wolves spring to mind but I do not remember them as well.

So many of these books seem to be about a kid on their own, I feel like a story involving a community would be better. I cant think of any though.

I liked “Little House in the Big Woods” when I was little too, its about a kid whose parents are wilderness homesteaders or something, I don’t really remember haha.

#10

PETER PAN!

#11

rad! thanks Rix!

#12

[u][i]The Education of Little Tree

Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Nature and Survival for Children[/i][/u]

Eat’em up! :slight_smile:

#13
The Education of Little Tree

The Fabrication of Little Tree

There’s a reason that real Cherokee absolutely hate this book.

#14

Uno’s Garden is a fantastic picture book.

#15

While I applaud your effort, Primal Parent, to find rewild-inspired children’s books, I would just add that maybe the best way to use a list like this is as a starting tool for parents/caregivers to come up with their own stories to share orally (without a book) with children, while outside interacting with nature. For example, children can learn a lot about a plant when you tell them the story of that plant (either non-fiction or fiction).

#16

Thanks everyone!

i had most of it except for some ones i’d never heard of: Eranidi, Uno or Blue Dolphin isle. thanks again.

The Fire-Us trilogy does indeed sound interesting.

i have decided to include Little Tree (albeit with a HUGE dislclaimer) in the fiction for a few reasons.

Well basically for the same reasons i have also included Tom Brown Jr.s Field Guide to Nature Survival for Children :wink:

keep 'em coming…

#17

i agree.

and actually a large part of my life is the spontaneous stories our family makes up on the spot (my daughter still believes fairies are born everytime she farts…)

but i have long wanted a radical reading list for the greens, primmitivists, rewilders and all.

all the “radical” lists out there now are basically biographies of civil rights leaders and social justice issues. i want to go deeper.

and at the end i do plan on including a warning/critique of “book-learning” as opposed to “life-learning” and hope to go into the importance of oral traditions and myth and personal interaction, etc.

perhaps you’d like to help me with that?

in defence of woodpecker holes,
ww

#18

Those are good,and I feel obvious ways to bring the wilderness and rewilding close to home,for our little one.Yes,we must remember and in some cases revive the oral traditions.
I think creating songlines to share with my son would be a great way to get this knowledge to stick,in a fun way.
However,Didn’t Primal parent communicate the need for books for a bibliography?

#19

Hear hear. I feel the stories we tell outside encourage our kids to see how they are part of the story, although I guess they already see it that way. I love to hear my son say, thanks, plantain! Or, I’m leaving you some nuts, squirrel. Don’t forget to leave me some! Or, the blackberries told me to stop eating, it’s the bluejays’ turn.

That said, I happily found this book: The Other Way to Listen, by Byrd Baylor and Peter Parnall, and wished desperately to visit with my grandpa again (gulp).

Scavenger, Island of the Blue Dolphins rocks! One of my childhood faves.

#20

I thought this was interesting (from an interview with Unschool Author John Holt):

What is your philosophy about teaching reading?

I think the teaching of reading is mostly what prevents reading. Different children learn different ways. I think reading aloud is fun, but I would never read aloud to a kid so that the kid would learn to read. You read aloud because it’s fun and companionable. You hold a child, sitting next to you or on your lap, reading this story that you’re having fun with, and if it isn’t a cozy, happy, warm, friendly, loving experience, then you shouldn’t do it. It isn’t going to do any good.

I think children are attracted toward the adult world. It’s nice to have children’s books, but far too many of them have too much in the way of pictures. When children see books, as they do in the family where the adults read, with pages and pages and pages of print, it becomes pretty clear that if you’re going to find out what’s in those books, you’re going to have to read from that print. I don’t think there’s any way to make reading interesting to children in a family in which it isn’t interesting to adults.

Perhaps rewilding doesn’t involve using “childrens” books at all? I read an article where a woman taught her child to read using Lord of the Rings. One day he was caught in kindergarden, reading Beowulf. Without his moms knowledge he took it off the shelf from home and took it to school to read. 5 years old! The teacher didn’t believe him and so he read some of it to her. He didn’t quite understand what some of the words meant, but he could read them. That was the important part I guess.

Of csorue, fcuk leticray alothetgr if you ask me. E-prime it otherwise.