Celebrate Our Beautiful Planet with these Fiction Reads

When Monkey proclaims that it is his birthday, all the other jungle animals protest, claiming instead that it is Earth Day and telling Monkey what he should do to honor this special day.

P.K. Hallinan shows children cooperating to help rescue Earth from mankind’s mistakes of the past so that youngsters can see that their own efforts can make a difference in the world.

Outer space, a moon base, and . . . bananas? A spaceman, a robot, and a cheeky monkey use a most unusual method to protect Earth from hungry, googly-eyed moon aliens. 

Twelve-year-old Nova is eagerly awaiting the launch of the space shuttle Challenger. Nova and her big sister, Bridget, share a love of astronomy and the space program. They planned to watch the launch together. But Bridget has disappeared, and Nova is in a new foster home. But every day, she’s counting down to the launch, and to the moment when she’ll see Bridget again. Because Bridget said, “No matter what, I’ll be there. I promise.”

The Blythes are a warm, rambunctious family who live on a farm and foster children. Prez has come to live with them. But one day Prez answers the door to someone claiming to be his relative. This small, loud stranger carries a backpack, and goes by the name of Sputnik. It seems his family all think Sputnik is a dog. It’s only Prez who thinks otherwise. But Prez soon finds himself defending the family from the chaos unleashed by Sputnik.

Alex Petroski loves space and rockets, his mom, his brother, and his dog Carl Sagan–named for his hero, the real-life astronomer. All he wants is to launch his golden iPod into space the way Carl Sagan (the man, not the dog) launched his Golden Record on the Voyager spacecraft in 1977. From Colorado to New Mexico, Las Vegas to L.A., Alex records a journey on his iPod to show other lifeforms what life on earth, his earth, is like.

Lee Westfall has a secret. She can sense the presence of gold in the world around her. Veins deep beneath the earth, pebbles in the river, nuggets dug up from the forest floor. The buzz of gold means warmth and life and home–until everything is ripped away by a man who wants to control her. Left with nothing, Lee disguises herself as a boy and takes to the trail across the country. Gold was discovered in California, and where else could such a magical girl find herself, find safety?

When the members of the elite Baltimore Gun Club find themselves lacking any urgent assignments at the close of the Civil War, their president, Impey Barbicane, proposes that they build a gun big enough to launch a rocket to the moon. But when Barbicane’s adversary places a huge wager that the project will fail and a daring volunteer elevates the mission to a “manned” flight, one man’s dream turns into an international space race.

It’s an ordinary Thursday morning for Arthur Dent . . . until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly after to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and Arthur’s best friend has just announced that he’s an alien. After that, things get much, much worse. With just a towel, a small yellow fish, and a book, Arthur has to navigate through a very hostile universe in the company of a gang of unreliable aliens. Luckily, he’s got The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

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