10 Best Nerdy and Eco-friendly Baby Books
As parents, we struggled to find baby books that touched on nerdier or eco-friendly learning topics. So from science-based books to tree species alphabets to comic book heroes, here’s a compiled list of all the nerdy and eco-friendly baby books that we love! Whether you’re expecting, gifting, or already have little ones, this collection of books are must-haves for nerdy and eco-friendly babies and parents!
Updated 08/22/2022
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When my hubby and I found out we were expecting, we did all the usual list making to prepare for a baby and started making baby registries. Besides clothes and toys, books are one of the most common gifts people buy for expecting parents, babies’ birthdays, or holidays.
Knowing we also wanted to enjoy the books, we started searching for the best nerdy and eco-friendly baby books we could find. Let me say, it wasn’t super easy at first…there’s not an Amazon baby book checklist for nerdy and eco-friendly parents. Which is why we compiled this lovely list for you, so that you don’t have to search all over for amazing nerdy and eco-friendly baby books!
Bookshop
The following links under each book are Amazon links to add to your baby book list. However, if you’re looking for a alternatives for Amazon, then Bookshop is a great resource. Bookshop is an online marketplace specifically for buying books. A ton of the books that you might be considering getting off Amazon are right there. However, if you purchase through Bookshop instead, then 10% of each sale is donated to an independent bookstore. They’re also a certified B corporation and climate neutral certified with over $21 million raised for local bookstores since the company launched in early 2020.
Why not give back and help independent bookstores thrive in the age of ecommerce? Also, I have all these books in my Bookshop store, so no hunting them down and simply add them to the cart!
Science Baby Books
Baby Loves Science Book Set
The Baby Love Science Book Set takes scientific concepts and break them down into simple forms that little ones can understand and relate to easily.
- Baby Loves Gravity – Gravity is one of the most basic science concepts children learn early on. This board book breaks down the concept of gravity in a playful way with a Baby and his/her Puppy experimenting with how gravity works. Anyone with pets and kids will definitely relate. The Baby and Puppy in this book test gravity with food from a high chair….I know our little one loves to test gravity the same way! The book even explains weak and strong pulls and the concept of mass through comparisons of the Baby, Puppy and the Earth.
Ruth Spiro, the author, has the main character just named Baby. I think makes it easy for little ones to picture themselves as the baby in the book doing the actions. I know our little one always likes to point to the book and then point back at himself saying baby! By far, this is our little one’s favorite….but I think that’s because it has a puppy and he loves his puppy siblings at home! Definitely a great add to the nerdy baby book collection!
- Baby Loves Thermodynamics – This nerdy baby book explores the concept of thermodynamics, which is the science of heat and energy. It illustrates the transfer of energy as it flows from the sun to an apple and then to Baby when he/she eats the apple. This particular Baby Loves book has more elaborate, colorfully speckled scenes than some of the others. It helps depict the flows of energy and nature even more!
Our little one sure loves to run and play outside, so it’s fun to have a baby book that helps to explain how he gets some of that crazy energy!
- Baby Loves Coding – Yet another fun nerdy topic for your little one! Baby Loves Coding uses a train to explain the concept of coding. In the story, Baby needs to get to the toy box and uses a pattern of steps to get there and back to his/her train set, which is an algorithm. It then goes on to talk about how programmers use computers, algorithms, and codes to have objects do familiar tasks like play music, microwave food or run a choo choo train!
So for any of you nerdy computer people, this is a fun way to share and teach it to your little one!
- Baby Loves Aerospace Engineering – Engineering is a critical part of our society as it allows us to design and build amazing things! This nerdy baby books walks your little one through how aerospace engineering works. A bird and it’s wings are used to explain how aerodynamics works and why birds can fly. Then compares that to how engines and wings helps airplanes and rockets fly!
Just like the other Baby Loves books, the images are bright and playful and the scientific concepts are simplified enough for your little one to learn, but still be educational. Engineering kinda runs in our little one’s veins thanks to his daddy who’s a mechanical engineer!
This next one is not part of the box set, but we highly recommend it!
- Baby Loves Green Energy – This nerdy and eco-friendly baby book illustrates the concept of Green Energy and what that means. The book uses a blanket as a metaphor. It explains how just like Baby’s blanket, the Earth has a blanket (a.k.a. the atmosphere) that is made up of gases and protects our planet. It then briefly touches on how the human population affects the atmosphere by producing greenhouse gases, which are heating and damaging the atmosphere. From there, the book illustrates all the different alternative green energy options. It ends with how Baby can help do his/her part to help the Earth.
Personally, this one strikes close to our hearts as we are striving to do better and leave a little footprint on our planet!
The Baby Loves Book Series has other science books, but also covers other topics like the five senses and voting. You should check out all the educational Baby Loves books, but these are our favorites so far!
- Climate Change for Babies – Another eco-friendly baby book that walks your little one through the basic concept of climate change. This board book starts with explaining the earth, its atmosphere and the gases making up the atmosphere. Then it compares it to other planets explaining why Earth’s balanced atmosphere sustains life. Next the story depicts how climate change occurs due to how people are changing the atmosphere. Lastly, this eco-friendly baby book ends with a call to action. Help stop climate change and do our part to save the Earth!
The book simplifies the language and associates the atmosphere to a blanket and climate change to making the Earth sick. So don’t worry! Your little one won’t be lost on intangible items and have familiar feelings to associate with the concept of climate change.
Overall, this nerdy and eco-friendly baby book uses simple, colorful images to depict how climate change works. We want our little one to be aware of how him, his peers, and all others affect our planet and be set to do his best to leave a little footprint on his one and only planet!
- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star I Know Exactly What You Are – Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is probably a fairly familiar song for you and your little one. This paper book uses the cadence and rhythm of the song to describe what stars actually are! The story sings you through the concepts of constellations to red and blue stars to big galaxies made of stars. It’s a super cute way to take a childhood song and turn it into an educational tool!
The pictures in the book make you feel like you’re in a planetarium looking up at the night sky. The images are stylized just enough for your little one without seeming you’re looking at a real photography.
But wait!….One of the coolest features of this book is at the end. There’s more in-depth science text that explains in detail what stars and constellations actually are, what causes twinkling in stars, the difference between red and blue stars, and so much more. It’s great for if your little on is older and wants facts and a deeper scientific understanding. To be honest…as an adult, I even learned some new facts after reading this part! This book was gifted to us, and I’m so glad we have it in our nerdy and eco-friendly baby books collection!
Tree Baby Books
- Mrs Peanuckle’s Tree Alphabet – This is one of the first baby books we ever got and it’s so cute! It beautifully illustrates a different species of tree with each letter of the alphabet. So we get to learn the alphabet and different tree species!
The book depicts trees you might see on a regular basis, but also uses trees from other parts of the world too. Each page gives your little one a letter and tree with a little bit of fun facts too. With me being trained as a landscape architect, I love getting to teach my little one about different species of trees. If you’re into trees, this would be a great alphabet book for you and your little one. You might even learn some new trees too!
Nerdy Comic Baby Books
- Marvel AlphaBlock: The Marvel Cinematic Universe from A to Z – Okay all you Marvel Universe nerds out there, this is the book for you and your baby! We have a personal love for the Marvel Universe and someday our little one will likely too. This fun chunky book illustrates characters from the Marvel cinematic universe to teach your little one the alphabet. Everything from Groot to Vision, your little one will flip through the Marvel Universe and learn along the way.
The art style is really colorful making our little one point and stay engaged (…well as much as a toddler can!). Another cool aspect of this book is the letter pages are big cutouts. You have to flip them to see the characters. It creates this wonderful physical motion to associate letters with words/characters. We love this book and it makes learning the alphabet just a bit more fun for both of us!
- Night Night Groot – More Marvel Universe nerdiness in another baby book! I know much of the world was obsessed with Baby Groot at one point. This board baby book definitely plays on Baby Groot’s adorable chaotic nature!
The graphic style of the book is colorful and playful. It has a stylistic drawing approach to the Guardian of the Galaxy characters we know. The story follows Groot as he is trying to go to bed. But Rocket sweeps him away to remind him of all the fun things they did that day. Groot and Rocket fly through scenes with familiar heroes and villains all the while Rocket tries to convince Groot to not go to bed. Of course in the end, little Groot finds sleep and it’s a great transition to helping put your little one to bed.
We really love this action-packed and fun bedtime story…so much so that our little one says “go night night” and not go to bed! Definitely a great book to add to your nerdy and eco-friendly baby book collection.
Alternatives to Buying New Books
Now that you scrolled through this wonderful list of nerdy and eco-friendly baby books, there is one point I have bring up. Buying new books means trees were cut down. Then used to make these books as well as other environmental impacts that comes with producing new products.
With many of these nerdy and eco-friendly baby books being new to the market, it’s hard not to buy them new. We made the decision to buy new because we wanted to raise our little one on these types of books. However, we consciously made the decision to continue to hand them down to other kids. Or donate them to a library when our little one (and future little ones) out grow them. The goal is to let these books have a long life and not wasted.
So think about how you grow your baby book collection and you can always explore other options like receiving/giving second-hand books or borrow from the library! You can even buy E-books if your child has already been introduced to electronics and you don’t mind the screen-time. E-books are typically cheaper and obviously don’t have nearly the carbon/tree footprint impact. Or hop over to Bookshop to have your books give back to independent bookshops instead of Amazon. It’s up to you, but always try to be as honest as possible!
We absolutely love reading with our little one, and aspire for him to grow into a nerdy and eco-friendly person! Let us know what you think of these books. Or if you have any other suggestions for excellent nerdy and eco-friendly baby books!
Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links, and I will earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Please note that I’ve linked to these products purely because I recommend them and they are from companies I trust. There is no additional cost to you.
