Books about Jane Goodall

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I love the new picture book about Jane Goodall‘s early life titled Me . . . Jane. The book made me think more about Goodall’s life and her work with animals.

Books about Jane Goodall

Books about Jane Goodall

Me . . . Jane is about Jane’s early life in England.

Books about Jane Goodall

The Watcher starts with Jane’s early life in England then continues to her life in the Tanzanian jungle.

Books about Jane Goodall

Kids who are interested in more about Dr. Goodall will enjoy her autobiography, My Life with the Chimpanzees.

Untamed
Untamed The Wild Life of Jane Goodall
by Anita Silvey, forward by Jane Goodall
This is not your average biography for kids with small font and ugly black and white photos. No, it’s so much better! Untamed is an excellent depiction of Jane Goodall’s life with kid-friendly language using kid-appealing layouts of colorful photos. Interesting insets throughout describe tips for kids and information such as sign language. I love the Gombe Family Scrapbook at the end with some of the significant chimps in Jane’s life. I also found it really interesting to learn how this English girl read about Africa as a child and fell in love with it.

Roots and Shoots

Dr. Jane Goodall and a group of Tanzanian students formed a program to make positive change for animals and the environment called Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots programs. The program asks young people to identify problems in the community and take action.

Books about Jane Goodall

Dr. Marc Bekoff and CU Boulder’s Children, Youth and Environments organized the artwork and writing of children in the Roots & Shoot’s program wonderful book called Kids & Animals: drawings from the hands and hearts of children & youth with sections on safety, peace, love, caring, families, homes & habitats, coexistence, and cooperation.

I recently interviewed Bekoff for an article in the now defunct Denver Magazine. Beckoff told me that he and Jane wanted to make the book available for free. He also said when thinking about the power of kids and animals, that both kids and animals can pull together all different segments of society.

**Teachers, the Pearson Foundation offers elementary school lesson plans for the book, Kids & Animals, on the topic of Animal Communities.

Download the free .pdf of Kids and Animals.

Kid Activity: Use the writing and drawing prompt from the book and finish the sentence “I have a dream for” or “I am thankful for.

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5 Comments

  1. What a great assortment of books on Jane Goodall. I read the Me, Jane book and I liked it especially for preschool or Kindergarten. Some pundits have listed it as a contender for the 2012 Caldecott but because there are original sketches by Jane Goodall, they are not if it qualifies. It makes the book more interesting though!

    I will have to get my hands on The Watcher! Looks so great!

  2. We just checked out Me…Jane from the library. The book is one of my favorite’s this year and my daughter adored it as well. Amazing life story.

  3. Thanks for sharing Jane’s books and the lesson plan resources. I am anxious to try things out.

  4. Melissa, Thank you for sharing these books of Jane Goodall’s life. She really shifted a lot for the world of animals in our society. And I agree that kids and animals make great playfriends together, both with immense powers to be very naturally present.

    Lovely greetings from Angelique & the WAD organsisation