A Few More Environmental Books From 2025 We Couldn’t Let You Miss
This year most of our “Revelator Reads” columns presented new books covering themes like environmental activism, climate anxiety, wildlife, and public lands. But not every book fits into a neat box or arrives in time to make the cut. Here’s a year-end wrap-up of terrific books — many of which showcase success stories and solutions — that we didn’t want to close out 2025 without mentioning. We’ve adapted the books’ official descriptions below, and the link in each title goes to the publisher’s page. You should also be able to find any of these titles through your local bookseller or library. The Owl Handbook: Investigating the Lives, Habits, and Importance of These Enigmatic Birds by John Shewey Charismatic, intriguing, and misunderstood: The Owl Handbook is a beautifully photographed, thoughtfully researched, and accessible guide to these enigmatic, captivating creatures. Traditions of the owl as a harbinger of doom, spirit guide, and mysterious symbol for many cultures, mythologies, and superstitions have projected our fear of the unknown onto these nocturnal birds. But these wondrous birds are so much more than shadows in the night. Lifelong birding enthusiast John Shewey leads us through an exploration of owls’ cultural impact as seen in folklore, providing in-depth profiles of 19 owls of North America and a survey of 200 more across the globe, giving advice on how to respectfully observe and protect these magnificent birds, brought to life by hundreds of full-color photographs. Tigers Between Empires: The Improbable Return of Great Cats to the Forests of Russia and China by Jonathan C. Slaght The forests of northeast Asia are home to a marvelous range of animals — fish owls and brown bears, musk deer and moose, wolves and raccoon dogs, leopards and tigers. But by the final years of the Cold War, only a few hundred tigers stepped quietly through the snow of the Amur River basin. Soon the Soviet Union fell, bringing catastrophe; without the careful oversight of a central authority, poaching and logging took a fast, astonishing toll on an already vulnerable species. Just as these changes arrived, scientists came together to found the Siberian Tiger Project. Led by Dale Miquelle, a moose researcher, and Zhenya Smirnov, a mouse biologist, the team captured and released more than 114 tigers over three decades. They witnessed mating rituals and fights, hunting and feeding, the ceding and taking of territory, the creation of families. Within these pages, characters — both feline and human — come fully alive as we travel with them through the quiet and changing forests of Amur. Sink or Swim: How the World Needs to Adapt to a Changing Climate by Susannah Fisher How can we adapt to climate change? Let’s examine the key problems and hard choices that lie ahead for the global community in this practical approach to coping in a time of chaos. Adaptation has been incremental, with governments and institutions merely tinkering around the edges of current systems. This will not be enough, and this book explores the hard choices that lie ahead concerning how people earn a living, the way governments manage relationships between countries, and how communities accommodate the displacement of people. For example, should people be encouraged to move away from the coasts? Can global food supplies be managed when parts of the world are hit by simultaneous droughts? How can conflict be handled when there isn’t enough water for a population? Based on the latest research, interviews with experts, and practical examples from across the world, Sink or Swim discusses frankly the choices that lie ahead and how we can have a livable planet. Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World by Hilary Rosner All over the globe, animals are stranded — by roads, fences, drainage systems, industrial farms, and cities. They simply cannot move around to access their daily needs. Yet as climate change reshapes the planet in its own ways, many creatures will, increasingly, have to move in order to survive. This book illustrates a massive and underreported problem: how a completely human-centered view of the world has impacted the ability of other species to move around. But it’s also about solutions and hope: How we can forge new links between landscapes that have become isolated pieces. How we can stitch ecosystems back together, so that the processes still work, and the systems can evolve as they need to. How we can build a world in which humans recognize their interconnectedness with the rest of the planet and view other species with empathy and compassion. The Whispers of Rock: The Stories That Stone Tells About Our World and Our Lives by Anjana Khatwa Can you hear the stones speak? The question seems absurd. After all, rocks are lifeless, inert, and silent. Earth scientist Anjana Khatwa asks us to think again and listen to their stories. Alternating between modern science and ancient wisdom, Khatwa takes us on an exhilarating journey through time, from origins of the green pounamu that courses down New Zealand rivers to the wonder of the bluestone megaliths of Stonehenge, from the tuff-hewn churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia, to Manhattan’s bedrock of schist. In unearthing those histories, Khatwa shows how rocks have always spoken to us, delicately intertwining Indigenous stories of Earth’s creation with our scientific understanding of its development, deftly showing how our lives are intimately connected to time’s ancient storytellers. Through planetary change, ancient wisdom, and contemporary creativity, this book offers the hope of reconnection with Earth. You won’t simply hear rocks speak, you will feel the magic of deep time seep into your bones. We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate By Michael Grunwald In this rollicking, shocking narrative, Grunwald shows how the world, after decades of ignoring the climate problem at the center of our plates, has pivoted to making it worse, embracing solutions that sound sustainable but could make it even harder to grow more food with less land. But he also tells the stories of the dynamic scientists and entrepreneurs pursuing real solutions, from a jungle-tough miracle crop called pongamia to genetically edited cattle embryos, from Impossible Whoppers to a non-polluting pesticide that uses the technology behind the COVID vaccines to constipate beetles to death. It’s an often-infuriating saga of lobbyists, politicians, and even the scientific establishment making terrible choices for humanity, but it’s also a hopeful account of the people figuring out what needs to be done—and trying to do it. The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit by Priyanka Kumar As a child in the foothills of the Himalayas, Priyanka Kumar was entranced by forest-like orchards of diverse and luscious fruits, especially apples. These biodiverse orchards seemed worlds away from the cardboard apples that lined supermarket shelves in the United States. Yet on a small patch of woods near her home in Santa Fe, Kumar discovered a wild apple tree — and the seeds of an odyssey were planted. Could the taste of a feral apple offer a doorway to the wild? In The Light Between Apple Trees, Kumar takes us on a dazzling and transformative journey to rediscover apples, unearthing a rich and complex history while illuminating how we can reimagine our relationship with nature. The Girl Who Draws on Whales Written and illustrated by Ariela Kristantina A graphic novel for middle-level children. Set in a fantasy world, several centuries after “The Great Flood,” Sister Wangi and younger brother Banyu live in a sea-village. Wangi has a special bond with the Great Whales that visit their sea-village, and they allow Wangi to draw on their backs. Sometimes they return with new drawings on them, maybe there are other sea-villages around and they are sending her people messages. None of the elders listen to her. One day, a new whale arrives in the village alone, wounded, and dying. This whale has a new drawing on its back that doesn’t look like the previous drawings. Inspired by this mystery, Wangi vows to investigate. Although forbidden by her parents and the village elders, Wangi along with her brother embark on a wondrous journey to investigate where the drawings are coming from only to find much more than they were expecting. A Window Into the Ocean Twilight Zone: Twenty-Four Days of Science at Sea by Michelle Cusolito For children and adults to share and care together and learn about our magnificent ocean biodiversity. Join scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and their international partner organizations on a research voyage to study the ocean twilight zone. Science writer Michelle Cusolito takes us along for the journey of a lifetime. From boarding the ship and unpacking equipment to facing massive storms in the middle of the Atlantic, this book details the fascinating techniques used to study the deep ocean as well as the daily details of life aboard a Spanish research vessel. Meet remarkable people, discover amazing animals, and learn more at sea than you ever imagined. *** Finally, here’s a set of companion books from Charlesbridge Publishing that parents and children can read and discuss together — a great opportunity to support our future guardians of biodiversity. Turtles Heading Home! by Liza Ketchum, Jacqueline Martin, and Phyllis Root The waters around Cape Cod used to cool off gradually, signaling to sea turtles that it was time to swim south. However, with climate change, the ocean stays warm too long and cools off too quickly, making the turtles too cold to migrate. Turtles Heading Home! follows the efforts of conservationists as they rescue the turtles, nurse them back to health, and release them into warmer waters. The operation involves hundreds of people, from the volunteers patrolling the beaches to the veterinarians looking after the turtles to the pilots who fly the turtles south. All of them share the goal of helping save the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, the most endangered sea turtle in the world. Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Annie Patterson Sea turtles face many dangers as they grow, eat, travel, and breed. In this basic science dramatization of one female turtle’s challenges, acclaimed nature writer April Pulley Sayre highlights the role that humans have in helping this endangered species. Previously published, this story has been re-illustrated by the artist Annie Patterson. A great read-aloud or read-along choice for environmental awareness, this child-friendly book provides information on sea turtle conservation efforts for seven species of sea turtles and how they and grown-ups alike can help save these beautiful creatures. *** Enjoy these inspiring and informative reads as we prepare ourselves for the new year. You can find hundreds of additional environmental book recommendations in the “Revelator Reads” archives. And let us know what you’re reading: Drop us a line at comments@therevelator.org. The post A Few More Environmental Books From 2025 We Couldn’t Let You Miss appeared first on The Revelator.
Before ending the year, we wanted to highlight this eclectic assortment of reading gems we couldn’t fit into our earlier book reviews. The post A Few More Environmental Books From 2025 We Couldn’t Let You Miss appeared first on The Revelator.
This year most of our “Revelator Reads” columns presented new books covering themes like environmental activism, climate anxiety, wildlife, and public lands.
But not every book fits into a neat box or arrives in time to make the cut. Here’s a year-end wrap-up of terrific books — many of which showcase success stories and solutions — that we didn’t want to close out 2025 without mentioning.
We’ve adapted the books’ official descriptions below, and the link in each title goes to the publisher’s page. You should also be able to find any of these titles through your local bookseller or library.
The Owl Handbook: Investigating the Lives, Habits, and Importance of These Enigmatic Birds
by John Shewey
Charismatic, intriguing, and misunderstood: The Owl Handbook is a beautifully photographed, thoughtfully researched, and accessible guide to these enigmatic, captivating creatures. Traditions of the owl as a harbinger of doom, spirit guide, and mysterious symbol for many cultures, mythologies, and superstitions have projected our fear of the unknown onto these nocturnal birds. But these wondrous birds are so much more than shadows in the night. Lifelong birding enthusiast John Shewey leads us through an exploration of owls’ cultural impact as seen in folklore, providing in-depth profiles of 19 owls of North America and a survey of 200 more across the globe, giving advice on how to respectfully observe and protect these magnificent birds, brought to life by hundreds of full-color photographs.
Tigers Between Empires: The Improbable Return of Great Cats to the Forests of Russia and China
by Jonathan C. Slaght
The forests of northeast Asia are home to a marvelous range of animals — fish owls and brown bears, musk deer and moose, wolves and raccoon dogs, leopards and tigers. But by the final years of the Cold War, only a few hundred tigers stepped quietly through the snow of the Amur River basin. Soon the Soviet Union fell, bringing catastrophe; without the careful oversight of a central authority, poaching and logging took a fast, astonishing toll on an already vulnerable species. Just as these changes arrived, scientists came together to found the Siberian Tiger Project. Led by Dale Miquelle, a moose researcher, and Zhenya Smirnov, a mouse biologist, the team captured and released more than 114 tigers over three decades. They witnessed mating rituals and fights, hunting and feeding, the ceding and taking of territory, the creation of families. Within these pages, characters — both feline and human — come fully alive as we travel with them through the quiet and changing forests of Amur.
Sink or Swim: How the World Needs to Adapt to a Changing Climate
by Susannah Fisher
How can we adapt to climate change? Let’s examine the key problems and hard choices that lie ahead for the global community in this practical approach to coping in a time of chaos. Adaptation has been incremental, with governments and institutions merely tinkering around the edges of current systems. This will not be enough, and this book explores the hard choices that lie ahead concerning how people earn a living, the way governments manage relationships between countries, and how communities accommodate the displacement of people. For example, should people be encouraged to move away from the coasts? Can global food supplies be managed when parts of the world are hit by simultaneous droughts? How can conflict be handled when there isn’t enough water for a population? Based on the latest research, interviews with experts, and practical examples from across the world, Sink or Swim discusses frankly the choices that lie ahead and how we can have a livable planet.
Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World
by Hilary Rosner
All over the globe, animals are stranded — by roads, fences, drainage systems, industrial farms, and cities. They simply cannot move around to access their daily needs. Yet as climate change reshapes the planet in its own ways, many creatures will, increasingly, have to move in order to survive. This book illustrates a massive and underreported problem: how a completely human-centered view of the world has impacted the ability of other species to move around. But it’s also about solutions and hope: How we can forge new links between landscapes that have become isolated pieces. How we can stitch ecosystems back together, so that the processes still work, and the systems can evolve as they need to. How we can build a world in which humans recognize their interconnectedness with the rest of the planet and view other species with empathy and compassion.
The Whispers of Rock: The Stories That Stone Tells About Our World and Our Lives
by Anjana Khatwa
Can you hear the stones speak? The question seems absurd. After all, rocks are lifeless, inert, and silent. Earth scientist Anjana Khatwa asks us to think again and listen to their stories. Alternating between modern science and ancient wisdom, Khatwa takes us on an exhilarating journey through time, from origins of the green pounamu that courses down New Zealand rivers to the wonder of the bluestone megaliths of Stonehenge, from the tuff-hewn churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia, to Manhattan’s bedrock of schist. In unearthing those histories, Khatwa shows how rocks have always spoken to us, delicately intertwining Indigenous stories of Earth’s creation with our scientific understanding of its development, deftly showing how our lives are intimately connected to time’s ancient storytellers. Through planetary change, ancient wisdom, and contemporary creativity, this book offers the hope of reconnection with Earth. You won’t simply hear rocks speak, you will feel the magic of deep time seep into your bones.
We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate
By Michael Grunwald
In this rollicking, shocking narrative, Grunwald shows how the world, after decades of ignoring the climate problem at the center of our plates, has pivoted to making it worse, embracing solutions that sound sustainable but could make it even harder to grow more food with less land. But he also tells the stories of the dynamic scientists and entrepreneurs pursuing real solutions, from a jungle-tough miracle crop called pongamia to genetically edited cattle embryos, from Impossible Whoppers to a non-polluting pesticide that uses the technology behind the COVID vaccines to constipate beetles to death. It’s an often-infuriating saga of lobbyists, politicians, and even the scientific establishment making terrible choices for humanity, but it’s also a hopeful account of the people figuring out what needs to be done—and trying to do it.
The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit
by Priyanka Kumar
As a child in the foothills of the Himalayas, Priyanka Kumar was entranced by forest-like orchards of diverse and luscious fruits, especially apples. These biodiverse orchards seemed worlds away from the cardboard apples that lined supermarket shelves in the United States. Yet on a small patch of woods near her home in Santa Fe, Kumar discovered a wild apple tree — and the seeds of an odyssey were planted. Could the taste of a feral apple offer a doorway to the wild? In The Light Between Apple Trees, Kumar takes us on a dazzling and transformative journey to rediscover apples, unearthing a rich and complex history while illuminating how we can reimagine our relationship with nature.
Written and illustrated by Ariela Kristantina
A graphic novel for middle-level children. Set in a fantasy world, several centuries after “The Great Flood,” Sister Wangi and younger brother Banyu live in a sea-village. Wangi has a special bond with the Great Whales that visit their sea-village, and they allow Wangi to draw on their backs. Sometimes they return with new drawings on them, maybe there are other sea-villages around and they are sending her people messages. None of the elders listen to her. One day, a new whale arrives in the village alone, wounded, and dying. This whale has a new drawing on its back that doesn’t look like the previous drawings. Inspired by this mystery, Wangi vows to investigate. Although forbidden by her parents and the village elders, Wangi along with her brother embark on a wondrous journey to investigate where the drawings are coming from only to find much more than they were expecting.
A Window Into the Ocean Twilight Zone: Twenty-Four Days of Science at Sea
by Michelle Cusolito
For children and adults to share and care together and learn about our magnificent ocean biodiversity. Join scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and their international partner organizations on a research voyage to study the ocean twilight zone. Science writer Michelle Cusolito takes us along for the journey of a lifetime. From boarding the ship and unpacking equipment to facing massive storms in the middle of the Atlantic, this book details the fascinating techniques used to study the deep ocean as well as the daily details of life aboard a Spanish research vessel. Meet remarkable people, discover amazing animals, and learn more at sea than you ever imagined.
***
Finally, here’s a set of companion books from Charlesbridge Publishing that parents and children can read and discuss together — a great opportunity to support our future guardians of biodiversity.
Turtles Heading Home!by Liza Ketchum, Jacqueline Martin, and Phyllis Root
The waters around Cape Cod used to cool off gradually, signaling to sea turtles that it was time to swim south. However, with climate change, the ocean stays warm too long and cools off too quickly, making the turtles too cold to migrate. Turtles Heading Home! follows the efforts of conservationists as they rescue the turtles, nurse them back to health, and release them into warmer waters. The operation involves hundreds of people, from the volunteers patrolling the beaches to the veterinarians looking after the turtles to the pilots who fly the turtles south. All of them share the goal of helping save the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, the most endangered sea turtle in the world.
Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out!by April Pulley Sayre, illustrated by Annie Patterson
Sea turtles face many dangers as they grow, eat, travel, and breed. In this basic science dramatization of one female turtle’s challenges, acclaimed nature writer April Pulley Sayre highlights the role that humans have in helping this endangered species. Previously published, this story has been re-illustrated by the artist Annie Patterson. A great read-aloud or read-along choice for environmental awareness, this child-friendly book provides information on sea turtle conservation efforts for seven species of sea turtles and how they and grown-ups alike can help save these beautiful creatures.
***
Enjoy these inspiring and informative reads as we prepare ourselves for the new year. You can find hundreds of additional environmental book recommendations in the “Revelator Reads” archives.
And let us know what you’re reading: Drop us a line at comments@therevelator.org.
The post A Few More Environmental Books From 2025 We Couldn’t Let You Miss appeared first on The Revelator.