Nature Is Disappearing from Children's Books, Study Finds

Researchers divided the images in the books published between 1938 and 2008 into three categories: depictions of the natural environment; those of the built environment, say, inside a house, or those showing a middle ground, such as a mowed lawn. They also noted whether or not any animals appeared, and if so, how they were depicted.

From the late 1930s until the 1960s, built and natural environments were depicted almost equally, then images of cities, towns and indoors started to increase in the mid-1970s, while the natural environment showed up less and less frequently, they found. Images of wild animals also declined.

The books examined were either Caldecott Medal winners or honorees.

Summary and Conclusions
Caldecott winners and honor books have given less attention in recent years to the natural world and more attention to built environments. Throughout our study period, Americans have lived in and around built environments, so it is not surprising that this kind of environment would be prominent in children’s stories. What we find in these books, however, is not a consistent proportional balance of built and natural environments, but a significant and steady increase of built environments, both by mere presence and as the major environment. Natural environments have all but disappeared. Human interaction with the natural environment increased in the early decades of the study period, but began to decline by the mid-1970s and has been declining ever since. Interestingly, although nature is included less in recent books, when present, it is less likely to be portrayed negatively.