Please welcome my guest author today, Maria Gianferrari with 8 Children’s Books about Fungi and Mushrooms: When It Rains It Spores — Fun Fungi Books! She has had a busy year with six new picture books released!! Her newest is on fungi.
True story! I just so happen to be signed up for a mushroom foraging class at my local Adult Education. It includes foraging, a cooking lesson, and a log to bring home in which to grow your own mushroom. Maria lives about an hour from me and when I told her about my mushroom foraging class, she replied that she was signed up for a different class in her location two weeks later than mine.
I don’t think that I will ever forage for wild mushrooms and eat them; I’m too scared of poisonous look-alike mushrooms but I am looking forward to hiking the woods and trying my hand at growing my own mushrooms. I hope they are shitake mushrooms!
Fungi Grow by Maria Gianferrari, illustrated by Diana Sudyka
Maria presents the diversity of mushrooms from varieties that are edible, medicinal, and even poisonous! Readers will also learn about the underground fungal network that benefits the trees in the forest. This is a fascinating look at the world of fungi! [nonfiction picture book, ages 4 and up]
We are giving away a copy of Fungi Grow
Everything’s coming up mushrooms! Fungi are growing all over New England where I live thanks to all of the rain.
I’m delighted to be back at Pragmatic Mom yet again, this time to celebrate the wonderful world of mycology and our book, FUNGI GROW with a list of favorite mushroom-y books! Thanks, Mia!
I know you will LOVE Diana’s lush and gorgeous art! Our publisher, Beach Lane, is generously donating a giveaway copy to a Pragmatic Mom reader (US addresses only—sorry!)
So, when it rains, it spores… mushroom and fungi books!
8 Children’s Books about Fungi and Mushrooms
Mushroom Rain by Laura K. Zimmermann, illustrated by Jamie Green
This is one of my favorites! The writing is lovely and lyrical, “Delicate umbrellas open/red octopus arms rise from the ground…”—It’s highly informative too, complemented by Green’s inviting art which brings the magic of mycelium to life. The back matter is chock full of STEM-y stuff sure to please back matter nerds like me ☺. [nonfiction picture book, ages 4 and up]
Fungarium by Katie Scott, illustrated by Ester Gaya
Part of the “Welcome to the Museum” series, this is one stunning book, covering topics such as fungal biology, diversity, and reproduction as well as information on poisonous, pathogenic, edible mushrooms and more. It’s a feast for the eyes and the mind. [nonfiction middle grade picture book, ages 8 and up]
The Mushroom Fan Club by Elise Gravel
This absolutely charming introduction to the world of fungi, replete with whimsical mushroom art for the youngest readers and listeners, invites readers on a fungi treasure hunt. Its engaging and conversational text offers information about mushrooms from boletes, chanterelles, and morels, to polypores and puffballs, and ends with fun mushroom and fungi facts. [nonfiction picture book, ages 6 and up]
Fungus is Among Us! by Joy Keller & Erica Salcedo
Punny text and humorous art combine to take the reader on a rhyming romp through the world of fungi, from the forest floor, backyard, and lichen-lined trees, to inside our homes, our bodies, the air we breathe, the foods we eat—we cannot escape—the fungus is among us! The book covers mildew, yeast, spores, mold, anatomy, and more, and ends with a mycologist Q&A. [nonfiction picture book, ages 5 and up]
Funky Fungi: 30 Activities for Exploring Molds, Mushrooms, Lichens and More by Alisha Gabriel, illustrated by Sue Heavenrich
This hands-on book encourages outdoor exploration and mushroom identification as well as fun fungi activities ranging from dissecting mushrooms and making spore prints, to crafts like bookmark-making stamp art and even microscope-building, all in the name of FUN-gi. This guide inspires curiosity and creativity and encourages experimentation and observation that’s both interactive and entertaining. A “spore”gasbord for budding mycologists. [activity book, ages 7 and up]
Humongous Fungus by Lynne Boddy, illustrated by Wenjia Tang
Take an in-depth look at the fabulous kingdom of fungi found in every kind of ecosystem. Mycologist-author Lynne Boddy explains how fungi “greened” the earth and arrived on land; explore spores and learn how fungi feed, form, and fruit. Readers discover mushrooms in a multitude of shapes and sizes and colors: they are decomposers and eaters of plastic; they are poisonous; they are plant killers and plant savers; they are medicines and medicine makers; they are home invaders, chemists and agents of global and environmental change. They are fungi. [nonfiction picture book, ages 7 and up]
Mushrooming: An Illustrated Guide to the Fantastic, Delicious, Deadly, and Strange World of Fungi by Diane Borsato, illustrated by Kelsey Oseid
Not meant to be used as a means of identifying mushrooms for edibility, this beautifully illustrated book is more celebratory in nature, examining some of the more common types of mushrooms (and some lichens and slime molds too). Mushrooming inspires delight, wonder, curiosity, connection, and appreciation for the weird and wonderful world of mushrooms, from their other-worldly appearances and fanciful names to their myths and mysteries. [nonfiction middle grade picture book, ages 8 and up]
As I write this post, this book has not yet been released, but I am enamored of its vivid and colorful cover.
Hello, Fungi: A Little Guide to Nature by Nina Chakrabarti
It appears to be a guide for identifying mushrooms, sharing fun mushroom-y activities, and even some recipes. I look forward to checking it out.
I hope you will enjoy exploring these fun, fungi books as well as our own FUNGI GROW. We hope that they will all inspire future mycologists and environmental stewards.
Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
And if you happen to live in the Chicago area, Diana & I will be doing two events there together on October 22nd:
10:30 AM: Storytime & Signing at Booked, in Evanston
2:30 PM: A “Magic and Nature” Event, with Elizabeth Shreeve & Karla Arenas Valenti at the Evanston Public Library
And may the spores be with you!
Fungi Grow picture book GIVEAWAY!
We are giving away a copy of Fungi Grow
Maria Gianferrari’s yard is full of fungi. From branching corals and pointy stinkhorns to smoky puffballs and colorful jack-o’-lanterns, everything’s coming up mushrooms! Someday she hopes to find some morels—she’ll even share them with a squirrel. Maria’s favorite edible mushroom is the hearty portobello. She lives in Massachusetts.
Diana Sudyka grew up hearing stories of her grandfather, an ardent forager, bringing home chicken of the woods and maitake mushrooms for meals. Her favorite edible mushroom is the delicious morel that popped up in her yard last spring. Diana lives with her family in Evanston, Illinois.
p.s. Related posts:
Picture Books to Inspire Foraging
Edible Plants & Foraging In My Neighborhood
Let’s Fete Felines + a BEING A CAT: A TAIL OF CURIOSITY
Top Ten Picture Books about Pets
Let’s Fete: Dogs and Mindfulness Tails
Celebrate Tree Picture Books for Earth Day
Top 10 STEM Bird Books for Bird-Watching Kids
Top 10 STEM Expository Nonfiction Picture Books
To examine any book more closely at Indiebound or Amazon, please click on image of book.
As an Amazon and IndieBound Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Multicultural Books for Kids on Pinterest.
Follow PragmaticMom’s board STEAM on Pinterest.
My books:
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Congratulations Maria, Diana & all involved in making this wonderful looking and sounding book. I NEED IT. I have been reading about various mushrooms for a while, and when I discovered the species of Mycorrhizal fungi, and learned how they communicate through an underground network, I was hooked. I’m not quite sure how to approach a mushroom song, I just know I need a bunch of books, some good back matter, and illustrations that will spark the imagination yet offer guidance. I’d love some guidance from Fungi Grow! Stay well, and happy foraging!
Love a good mushroom book!
Hooray for fun-gi books! Thanks, Mia!
Our family loves to mushroom forage! My 5 year old especially loves it! We have just been learning online as we go. WOuld love to add a mushroom book to our library 🙂 thank you!
Mushroom rain is my favorite book about fungi.
My daughter is 18 but loves mushrooms! She would proudly display these in her dorm!!!
Love this! What a great set of books for a curious mind about nature! We get mushrooms that grow around the house every fall.
I think my favorite book about fungi is “Fungus is Among Us”
This looks like another fantastic book for my classroom library!
The Little Mushroom is my favorite, it’s really cute.
I didn’t realize that there were so many kids books on fungi!