Skip to main content

PNW Children’s Books to Inspire Local Adventures

Read a book, plan an adventure with these reads for tots to middle-grade kids

Published on: September 24, 2021

PNW Children’s Books to Inspire Local Adventures

book cover for Rescuing Rialto: A Baby Sea Otter’s Story

Chapter books and early readers

Journey: Based on the True Story of OR7, the Most Famous Wolf in the West”  (Emma Bland Smith, K–grade 4)

Formatted like a picture book, “Journey” is nonetheless packed with data recorded by Fish and Wildlife scientists who studied the first wild wolf in California after almost a century. Told from the point of view of a little girl who follows news reports of the wolf’s 2,000-mile journey from Oregon and teaching about wolves and the conservation issues specific to them, it’s a perfect prequel to visiting Wolf Haven. This 82-acre park, located 10 miles south of Olympia, provides sanctuary for captive-born wolves, and also promotes wolf conservation and education. Although Wolf Haven keeps visitors appropriately separated from the wolves, older kids can read the classic “Julie of the Wolves” to imagine what it’s like running with the pack, and younger ones can enjoy “Little Wolf’s First Howling” to inspire their own wild howl.   

Hockey Hero” (Zachary Hyman, grades 1–4)

Written by a professional hockey player, “Hockey Hero” tells the story of an awkward boy who finds his place on the ice. It’s a perfect read now that Seattle has its own hockey team. Their practice rink, Kraken Community Iceplex, is now open to families for public skating sessions. Convince uncertain skaters that there are scarier things than falling down with “Little Red Gliding Hood,” and offer figure skaters the graphic memoir “Spinning.”

Rescuing Rialto: A Baby Sea Otter’s Story” (Lynda V. Mapes, grades 1–4)

Let Rialto inspire your own otter and ocean adventure. Written by Seattle Times reporter Lynda Mapes, “Rescuing Rialto” is the true story of the orphaned baby sea otter raised at Seattle Aquarium. Families can meet other sea otters (Rialto now lives in Vancouver) at the Seattle Aquarium or Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. Read “Elliot the Otter: The Totally Untrue Story of Elliott, Boss of the Bay” to learn more about the comings and goings of everyone on Elliott Bay, from cargo freighters to salmon. Then catch a glimpse of all this activity from Blake Island or from the deck of any ferry. (Parents think ferries are transportation, but kids know the journey is the destination.) When you get home, drift off to sleep with “Sea Star Wishes: Poems From the Coast” for sweet dreams of the sea. 

Related Topics

Share this resource with your friends!