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What are some cool books about weather, air and home?

Here are 30 real books about weather, water, air, homes, helpers and nature. You can borrow them free from the library with a grown-up.

Talon says“Grab a book! These are some of my favorites.”

Reading is a great way to learn how the world works. Every book on this list is real, and most libraries have them. Ask a grown-up to help you look them up.

The books are sorted by age, but that’s just a guide. Big kids can love picture books, and little kids can listen to bigger books read aloud.

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Home today?

Borrow a free ebook with a grown-up. Many library books come as ebooks you can read on a tablet.

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Library day

On hot afternoons, the library is a cool, quiet place to read. Bring this list!

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Tick as you go

Print this page and tick the box next to each book you finish.

Ages 4 to 6: read it together

Read	Book	What it’s about
	Little Cloud by Eric Carle	A little cloud drifts across the sky, changing into all kinds of shapes.
	The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats	A boy named Peter explores his neighborhood after a big snowfall.
	Feel the Wind by Arthur Dorros	What wind is, what makes it, and all the things it can push and carry.
	A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry	All the reasons trees are nice, including the cool shade they give.
	A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle	A hermit crab outgrows his shell and makes a new home with help from sea friends.
	Building a House by Byron Barton	Workers build a house step by step, from digging to moving in.
	Whose Hands Are These? by Miranda Paul	A rhyming guessing game about the hands of community helpers.
	The Jolly Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg	A mail carrier delivers letters to fairy tale characters, and you get to open them.
	Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller	A girl wonders what being kind really means, and finds out it can start small.
	Armadillo Rodeo by Jan Brett	A curious Texas armadillo follows a pair of shiny red boots to a rodeo.

Ages 6 to 8: read with help or on your own

Read	Book	What it’s about
	Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn M. Branley	How water goes up into clouds and comes back down as rain.
	Water Is Water by Miranda Paul	A poem that follows water as it turns into steam, clouds, rain, ice and snow.
	Air Is All Around You by Franklyn M. Branley	Simple experiments show that air is real and takes up space.
	The Cloud Book by Tomie dePaola	The main kinds of clouds, what they can tell you about weather, and old sayings about them.
	Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons	Clear pictures explain words like temperature, humidity and front.
	Sun Up, Sun Down by Gail Gibbons	The sun’s trip across the sky in one day, and how it warms the Earth.
	Hot Air by Marjorie Priceman	The mostly true story of the first hot-air balloon ride, with a duck, a sheep and a rooster on board.
	How Does My Home Work? by Chris Butterworth	Where a home’s water, power and heat come from, and where they go.
	Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty	A girl who builds gadgets learns that a flop is just a step toward success.
	Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies	A bat wakes at dusk and uses sound echoes to find her way and her food.
	The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaola	A retelling of a Comanche legend about how bluebonnets, the Texas state flower, came to be.
	Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña	A boy rides the city bus with his grandma and learns to see the beauty in his neighborhood.
	Maybe Something Beautiful by F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell	A girl and her neighbors brighten their gray city block with paint and murals.

Austin connection: After you read Bat Loves the Night, ask a grown-up about the bats that live under the Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin. In warm months, huge numbers of them fly out at dusk. Learn more on How Animals Keep Cool.

Ages 8 to 11: dig deeper

Read	Book	What it’s about
	A Drop of Water by Walter Wick	Amazing close-up photos of water freezing, melting, evaporating and condensing.
	Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin	The true story of a farmer who spent his life photographing snowflakes.
	The Kids’ Book of Weather Forecasting by Mark Breen and Kathleen Friestad	Build simple weather tools and learn to make your own forecasts.
	National Geographic Kids Everything Weather by Kathy Furgang	Photos and facts about heat, cold, wind, storms and how weather works.
	The Magic School Bus Kicks Up a Storm by Nancy White	Ms. Frizzle’s class rides into the sky to learn how storms form.
	Energy Island by Allan Drummond	The true story of a windy island in Denmark where neighbors worked together to make their own power from wind.
	The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer	The true story of a boy in Malawi who built a windmill from scraps. Look for the picture book or the young readers edition.

Why it works: Books let you see things you can’t see by yourself, like a water drop up close or the inside of a storm cloud. Then you can look for those same things in real life: the sweat on a cold glass, the wind in the trees, the clouds over Austin.

My reading log

Write down any book you read, even one not on this list.

Book title	My favorite part	Stars (1 to 5)
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When you finish a book, tell someone one new thing you learned.

Read it, then try it

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Cloud in a Glass

Read The Cloud Book, then try this lab.

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Hot Air Rises

Read Hot Air, then see why balloons float.

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Quiet Corner

Calm things to do on a slow day.