Best Free Nature Lore Books

As a child, I had the privilege of spending many days outside in a large rural yard with some woods out back. I was a longtime girl scout and experienced many meaningful (if not overly frequent) camping experiences as a scout and with family.

When I observed my own children in nature and when I read what Charlotte Mason expected of her students in terms of nature-knowledge, I realized that there is a lot more richness to mine from the natural world than I ever imagined. I've come to agree with Wordsworth's sentiments about nature:

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless—
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness. 

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can. 

 --from The Tables Turned

Embarking on a deeper knowledge of nature can seem overwhelming at first. But I've learned that by reading and noticing and recording, you can slowly but surely grow your own knowledge and appreciation of nature. And your children's knowledge will surely blossom as well.

In our family, we read nature lore at morning time, include nature lore as part of twice-weekly natural history lessons, select and learn about special plants and animals each term, record daily observations in our nature notebooks, paint natural objects, keep a calendar of firsts, and, of course, spend time in nature regularly.

How to Identify Living Nature Books

Fortunately, it is easy to find excellent nature lore books.  Sabbath Mood Homeschool has a wonderful list of nature lore books and Ambleside Online's Curriculum also includes many good titles for natural history.

And since many of these titles are in the public domain, they are available as free ebooks to read online or even print, potentially saving a lot of money without sacrificing any quality in content.

Even if you use physical books for all lessons, consider adding read alouds from free ebooks. The children won't need to engage with an ebook but will still get all the rich wonderful knowledge through you.

I've curated the following list of free illustrated nature lore ebooks. Many of the titles I learned about through the Sabbath Mood Homeschool or Ambleside Online book lists, but all the links are my own.

Note:
I prefer to link to Google Book versions when available. Once added to "Your Library" you can read them via the free Google Play Books app or on a computer or even print PDFs of the text.

If there is no Google Book version available, I link to the Internet Archive. Many of these may only be "checked out" and read online. We typically read these titles using a browser on a tablet or laptop. Even though they only have a 1-hour checkout period, you can check them out multiple times each time you read from them.

They don't always make for the best reading experience but still can be a great way to add a short book to morning time or to preview a book to decide if it is worth purchasing or requesting through your public library's interlibrary loan program.

Best Free Nature Lore Books

Jim Arnosky

All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive.

• Long Spikes (deer)
• Nearer Nature
• Secrets of a Wildlife Watcher

Margaret Waring Buck
All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive.

• Small pets from woods and fields
• In woods and fields
• Along the seashore
• Country Boy
• Where they go in winter

Arabella Burton Buckley
All can be read online or downloaded as free PDFs from Google Books or Internet Archive.

• Eyes No Eyes [Full collection of volumes available via the Internet Archive]
• Wild Life in Woods and Fields (Eyes No Eyes Volume I) via Google Books
• Birds of the Air (Eyes No Eyes Volume IV) via Google Books
• Life and her children: glimpses of animal life from the amœba to the insects 
• The fairy-land of science
• Winners in life's race; or, The great backboned family

Glenn Orlando Blough
All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive.

• Animals that live together
• Bird watchers and bird feeders
• Lookout for the forest: a conservation story
• The tree on the road to Turntown
• Discovering dinosaurs
• Who lives in this house? A story of animal families
• Who lives in this meadow? A story of animal life
• Who lives at the seashore? Animal life along the shore
• The birds in the big woods
• Animals round the year
• After the sun goes down
• Animals and their young
• Wait for the sunshine, the story of seasons and growing things
• Useful plants and animals
• When you go to the zoo

Barbara Brenner
All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive.

• Is it bigger than a sparrow? A book for young bird watchers 
• The tremendous tree book
• Beware! These animals are poison

Wilfrid Bronson
This title can be read online or downloaded as a free PDF.

• The Wonder World of Ants [Internet Archive]

All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive.

• Pollwiggle's Progress 
• Turtles
• Horns and antlers
• Goats
• Beetles

John Burroughs
All can be read online or downloaded as free PDFs from Google Books.

• Squirrels and Other Fur Bearers 
• Wake-Robin
• Winter Sunshine
• Locusts and Wild Honey
• Signs and Seasons
• Far and near
• Time and Change

Olive L. Earle
All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive.

• The Rose Family
• Birds of the Crow Family
• Strange Companions in Nature
• Thunder wings: the story of a ruffed grouse
• Camels and Llamas
• Crickets
• White Patch, a city sparrow
• Scavengers
• The strangler fir and other strange plants
• Birds and their nests
• Pond and marsh plants
• The swans of willow pond
• Squirrels in the Garden
• Praying Mantis
• Strange Lizards

Jean Henri Fabre
All can be read online or downloaded as free PDFs from Google Books or Internet Archive.

• The Story-book of Science
• The Secret of Everyday Things: Informal Talks with the Children
• Insect Adventures, Book 1
• Insect Adventures, Book 2
• Animal Life in Field and Garden 
• The Life of the Spider
• The Life of the Fly
• Bramble-Bees and Others
• The Life of the Grasshopper [Internet Archive]
• The Life of the Caterpillar
• Field, Forest, and Farm
• The Hunting Wasps
• Social Life in the Insect World

Alice E. Goudy
All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive.

• Butterfly Time
• The day we saw the sun come up
• Here come the beavers!

Alice L. Hopf

All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive.

• Animal and Plant Life Spans
• Animals That Eat Nectar and Honey
• Bats
• Biography of a Giraffe
• Biography of an Octopus
• Biography of a Rhino
• Biography of a Snowy Owl
• Carab the Trap-Door Spider
• Chickens and Their Wild Relatives
• Hyenas
• Misplaced Animals and Other Living Creatures
• Misunderstood Animals
• Nature's Pretenders
• Pigs Wild and Tame
• Spiders
• Strange Sex Lives in the Animal Kingdom
• Whose House Is It?
• Wild Cousins of the Dog
• Wild Cousins of the Cat

Ernest Ingersoll
All can be read online or downloaded as free PDFs from Google Books.

• Wildlife of Orchard and Field 
• Wild Neighbors: Out-door Studies in the United States 
• County Cousins: Short Studies in the Natural History of the United States
• The Wit of the Wild

William J. Long
All can be read online or downloaded as free PDFs from Google Books.

• Ways of wood folk 
• Wilderness Way 
• Secrets of the Woods 
• School of the Woods: Some Life Studies of Animal Instincts and Animal Training 
• A Little Brother to the Bear: And Other Animal Studies
• Northern Trails: Some Studies of Animal Life in the Far North, Book 1 
• Northern Trails: Some Studies of Animal Life in the Far North, Book 2 

Robert M. Mclung 
All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive.

• Leaper, the story of an Atlantic salmon 
• Ladybug
• Caterpillars and how they live 
• Animals that build their homes 
• Blaze, the story of a striped skunk
• Spike, the story of a whitetail deer
• Sea star
• Buzztail, the story of a rattlesnake
• Aquatic insects and how they live
• Green Darner, the story of a dragonfly
• All about animals and their young
• How animals hide
• Sphinx, the story of a caterpillar
• Bees, wasps, and hornets, and how they live
• The amazing egg
• Lost wild worlds: the story of extinct and vanishing wildlife of the Eastern Hemisphere
• Whooping Crane
• Scoop, the last of the brown pelicans
• Shag, last of the plain buffalo
• Thor, last of the sperm whales
• Rajpur, last of the Bengal Tigers
• Screamer, last of the Eastern panthers
• Sampson, last of the California Grizzlies
• Gorilla
• Black Jack, last of the big alligators
• Lost wild America: the story of our extinct and vanishing wildlife
• Hunted Mammals of the Sea
• Vulcan, the story of a bald eagle
• Redbird: The Story of a Cardinal
• Snakes, their place in the sun
• Whitefoot: The Story of a Wood Mouse
• Treasures in the sea

Margaret Warner Morley
All can be read online or downloaded as free PDFs from Google Books.

• Seed-babies
• The Insect Folk
• Flowers and their friends
• Little Wanderers
• The Bee People
• Butterflies and Bees: The Insect Folk
• Grasshopper Land
• A Few Familiar Flowers
• Wasps and Their Ways
• The Honey-Makers

Clara Dillingham Pierson
All can be read online or downloaded as free PDFs from Google Books.

• Dooryard Stories 
• Among the Farmyard People 
• Among the Forest People 
• Among the Meadow People 
• Among the Night People 
• Among the Pond People 

Laurence Pringle

All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive.

• Dolphin Man: Exploring the World of Dolphins
• Scorpian Man: Discovering the World of Scoprians

Charles L. Ripper
All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive.

• Ground Birds
• Moles and shrews
• Woodchucks and their kin
• Bats
• The Weasel Family
• Mosquitos
• Foxes and Wolves
• Hawks

Millicent E. Selsam
All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive.

• All Kinds of Babies
• The Apple and Other Fruits
• A first look at spiders 
• Where do they go? Insects in winter
• Animals of the Sea
• Egg to Chick
• Night Animals
• Play with Plants
• Big Tracks, Little Tracks: Following Animal Prints
• Bulbs, corms, and such
• All about eggs and how they change into animals
• Terry and the caterpillars
• A first look at whales
• How puppies grow
• How kittens grow
• Land of the Giant Tortoise: the story of the Galapagos
• Plenty of fish
• Backyard Insects
• Cotton
• Catnip
• See through the lake
• Mushrooms
• Questions and answers about ants
• Sea monsters of long ago
• Tree flowers
• A first look at seals, sea lions, and walruses
• A first look at fish
• A first look at kangaroos, koalas, and other animals with pouches
• Play with Vines
• A first look at animals without backbones
• A first look at monkeys and apes
• Seeds and more seeds
• How animals sleep
• How to grow house plants
• A first look at birds
• A first look at dinosaurs
• A first look at snakes, lizards, and other reptiles
• A first look at animals with horns
• A first look at animals that eat other animals
• When an Animal Grows

Dallas Lore Sharp
All can be read online or downloaded as free PDFs from Google Books.

• The Lay of the Land
• The Face of the Fields
• Wildlife Near Home
• Winter
• Summer
• The Spring of the Year
• The Fall of the Year
• Ways of the Woods
• A Watcher in the Woods
• Where Rolls the Oregon

Edwin Way Teale
The first two titles can be read online or downloaded as free PDFs from Google Books.

• North with the Spring
• Dune Boy: The Early Years Of A Naturalist

All of the following titles can be borrowed online for 1 hour from the Internet Archive. 

• A Walk Through the Year
• Journey Into Summer
• The Golden Throng: A Book About Bees
• Autumn Across America
• The Strange Lives of Familiar Insects
• Circle of the Seasons
• Springtime in Britain
• Adventures in Nature
• Wandering Through Winter
• Green Treasure: A Journey Through the World's Great Nature Writing

By others:
All can be read online or downloaded as free PDFs from Google Books or Archive.org

• The First Book of Bugs by Margaret Williamson
• The First Book of Birds by Margaret Williamson
• The First Book of Stones by Maribelle Cormack
• The First Book of Water by Jo and Ernest Norling
• Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock (also on Archive.org) 
• The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thorton Burgess
• The Burgess Animal Book for Children by Thornton Burgess
• Parables of Nature by Mrs. Alfred Gatty
• Rural Hours by Susan Fenimore Cooper
• Ten Common Trees by Susan Stokes
• The Land of Little Rain by Mary Hunter Austin
• A Bunch of Wild Flowers for the Children By Ida Prentice Whitcomb
• Trees That Every Child Should Know: Easy Tree Studies for All Seasons of the Year by Julia Ellen Rogers

If you like free ebooks, check out my other lists of free books. And let me know in the comments if you have any other books to recommend for this list. Thanks!

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