Introducing children to participating in and observing the natural world holds well-acknowledged merit—as well as rich offerings in current children’s books. No matter how urban a child’s environment may be, there are almost always snatches of nature available: the sky and weather; a vendor selling fruit that was planted and grown to be eaten and digested; open spaces where anything from a single street tree with visiting birds to a community garden maintained by neighbors is managed.
There is another environmental sphere throughout most of our daily lives, too, that is enjoying a swell of attention kids’ books: our built environment. In picture books for young and older readers, in middle grade chapter books, and more, kids can investigate what makes a construction of wood or stone or other building materials into one of the amazement-offering curiosities through which humans both experience shelter and express culture.
From Pyramids to Palaces: Architecture Around the World makes a good starting place for investigating the history of famous buildings. Written by Jiri Bartunek, who is an archeologist, and Tom Velčovský, a children’s book author with audiovisual experience, and illustrated by Marie Kraus, whose art is rendered with both paint and digital tools, and published by Albatros Books, this middle grade nonfiction book is also a good starting place for adults who want a quick overview of how and why buildings have been designed and constructed across the centuries and the globe. The pages are large, and filled with both narrative and visual detail about the what, when, where, how, and why of these well-documented structures. Take a look here:
Moving away from the large and famous, let’s visit some practical architecture for buildings that are designed for local needs. From Barefoot Books, Our Nipa Hut, a picture book written by Rachell Abalos with brightly colored illustrations by Gabriela Larios, takes us to the Philippines, where very wet, warm weather requires special attention to where and how a house for a family to weather a storm is designed, built, and maintained. Stilts beneath the nipa hut’s floor keep living quarters above rising waters, while building materials borrow directly and with little processing from surrounding plants. Both a family story and a STEM-inspiring exploration of how human design and natural environment are woven tightly together, this one is accessible to preschool readers as well as of high interest to elementary grade researchers.
City-dwelling children may be familiar with large apartment buildings. Inspire reflection and discussion of the people—past and present—these may hold with the audiobook of Five Stories, narrated by a full cast of professional narrators and produced by Live Oak Media. Spanning a century’s worth of possible tenant children in this lower East Side building, author Ellen Weinstein gives us insights on how the building remains both a permanent fixture and an ever-changing home as families arrive and grow up and away. Narrators Eva Kaminksy, Carlotta Brentan, Robert Jimenez, Desiree Rodriguez, and Albert M. Chan lend their talents to creating the multiethnic characters who epitomized the building’s inhabitants across immigrant generations. Sample how their voices open this big building for our understanding of all the stories it might tell:
What about cultures whose traditional ways of life rely on movable shelters? Author and illustrator Kincho Lam explores how seven contemporary societies around the world manage with portable housing alternatives in Nomads: Life on the Move, published by Cicada Books. We see where and how modern groups of Tuaregs who live in the Sahara Desert, Roma people who have found ranges in India, Europe, and beyond, Siberian Nenets, and others each maintain their communities while moving them, packing their shelters on various types of domesticated animal, using human power, or motorized vehicles that take them on the move. Some travel only on land, some across ice, and other nomadic groups live mostly on water. In addition to showing how each group uses design and material that allows both ready relocation and suitable shelter, this title introduces middle grade and adult readers to other aspects of each group’s traditional methods of daily life, and that calls to attention how many types of buildings non-nomadic people incorporate into daily life as well.
How many kinds of buildings have you used today? Purpose-built ones like a parking garage or a hospital? A repurposed older one, like the condominium that was once a school? Something brand new, like the shop at the gas station built last year? Or maybe, nomadically inspired, an RV? Look around, wherever you go where others are settled. Which buildings make you curious or suggest comfort or offer details you want to share with the young readers in your life? Hang this downloadable poster, courtesy of Floris Books, to inspire more reading about how buildings, like books, can inspire our imaginations.
