​​3 Great Books About the Outdoors

"Morning in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia," circa 1858, by William Louis Sonntag. New-York Historical Society. (Public Domain)

“Nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things,” the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote. It is particularly during this time of year that the freshness and vitality of nature displays itself with extravagant effulgence, tempting us from the couch or behind our computer screen to an encounter with the wild. When spring and summer arrive, the outdoors call with an irresistible note. We long to be immersed in the wind and the trees and the little rivers.

In the spirit of spring, then, here are three great books about the outdoors for readers of different ages. These titles will inspire readers to pursue a raw contact with the richness of the natural world and its adventures. Enough of screens. To the real. To the woods.

For ages 6 and up: ‘Little House in the Big Woods’ by Laura Ingalls Wilder

This autobiographical children’s classic centers around the life of a little girl, Laura, as she lives with her pioneering family in the woods by Pepin, Wisconsin, in the 1870s. The outdoors feature in the book because the wild landscape forms the backdrop of their life, and the pioneers live in close contact with the natural world, drawing their food, shelter, and entertainment from it.

Much of the novel describes the Ingalls family’s various activities and crafts as seen through Laura’s eyes, such as going to town, butchering animals, making hay, crafting straw hats, collecting honey, crafting toys, preserving food, churning butter, and celebrating Christmas. It is quite readable prose with simplicity and charm. The book sketches a picture of a delightful life lived in close communion with the outdoors, family, and traditional crafts.

In addition to depicting a loving and hardworking home life, the book reveals details about how things were made before industrialization. It will instill in children an appreciation of what the pioneers underwent to build America. Lessons on hard work and the importance of family abound.

For ages 8 and up: ‘My Side of the Mountain’ by Jean Craighead George

This slim, award-winning middle-grade novel relates the tale of Sam Gribley, a 12-year-old boy who is determined to survive on his own in the Catskill Mountains of New York state. With his father’s permission, Sam leaves New York City one May with a penknife, a ball of cord, an ax, some flint and steel, and $40. He must learn to survive with only these items and his own know-how, grit, and courage. The novel tells how Sam searches out an old piece of land that once belonged to his great-grandfather. There, he carves out a tree to form a house, hunts and gathers his own food, learns the ways of the mountain, and makes a life for himself.

Sam lives in the forest, following the natural rhythms of day and night, season falling upon season, spending his days accumulating knowledge and stores of provisions, interacting with animals (such as the falcon he tames and trains), solving problems, meeting occasional passersby, and enjoying the undisturbed peace and beauty of his surroundings. His adventure is not without danger and difficulty, however, such as when he almost poisons himself with carbon dioxide when he insulates his tree home too well.

George writes the survival aspects of the story with expertise and believability. As she states in the preface, “I had the knowledge. My father, who was a naturalist and scientist, taught me the plants and animals of eastern forests and showed me where the wild edible fruits and tubers grew … he and I boiled water in leaves and made rabbit traps. Together we made tables and chairs out of saplings bound with the braided inner bark of the basswood tree.”

With authenticity born of George’s personal experience, the story brims with detailed descriptions of how to gather food and make things out of wild materials. Few children today have such experiences as George had—exploring the wilderness and learning bushcraft—but we can at least experience it vicariously through “My Side of the Mountain.” The book teaches lessons about determination, resourcefulness, coming of age, and balancing independence with the importance of community and family. It helps children form an imagination attuned to the wonder of nature.

For Adults: ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek’ by Annie Dillard

“Pilgrim at Tinker Creek'' by Annie Dillard examines the natural world, but it offers much more than picturesque and engrossing descriptions of wildlife. The direct subject matter of Ms. Dillard’s essays—the wildlife around Tinker Creek and her excursions into nature—is interesting, but it is Ms. Dillard’s reflections, observations, and mental and spiritual wanderings that make the book into Pulitzer-Prize-winning material (an award that it won in 1975).

Every page overflows with Dillard’s fecund imagination, keen observations, surprising metaphorical and religious associations, and existential musings—all expressed through her distinctive and beauteous language. The workings of Ms. Dillard’s mind and her insight into the common human experience, presented in a scrupulously detailed study of nature, form the heart of the book.

Though the book is nonfiction and written in the first person, it discloses little of Ms. Dillard’s life or circumstances. We discover how she thinks, but nothing about how she lives. We enter a human being’s consciousness, reaching a layer of thought that looks not at the day-to-day, but at existence itself. Dillard studies the natural world, constantly discovering and revealing miracles in the mundane, and uses these wanderings and musings as the fuel for profound meditation on being itself: What are the powers inside of us and around us? Where are we and how did we get here? Who is responsible for the extraordinary intricacy, beauty, and terror of the natural world? These and similar questions form the substance of her reflections.

The book is structured around the passage of one year by Tinker Creek. Dillard analyzes each season and the miniature dramas playing out within it. Her reflections and observations indicate that she’s looking for something. “Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle, curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf” she writes in her stunningly beautiful prose, and she is fascinated by this mystery. “I am an explorer, then, and I am also a stalker, or the instrument of the hunt itself ... this book is the straying trail of blood,” a littering of signs to the whereabouts of the unknown quarry. Dillard is true to her word. The book includes whole chapters on stalking and seeing. She examines nature because it’s a clue that might help her decipher the spiritual significance of herself and her world.

These books further an awareness of the importance of nature and the outdoors. Each work shows us the role of nature in a healthy human life and an understanding of our place in the world. They foster in children a sense of awe at nature and an understanding of our dependence on it. These are key lessons for children to learn—and adults too, for that matter.