The fairies have taken over our lives.  But it looks like they may be doing it with a more respsonsible worldview.

Here’s a tip for the week ahead: Take a kid for a walk in the woods, and explain to her why forests are so important. They absorb CO2 and release oxygen. They guard against erosion. They provide food and shelter to zillions of the planet’s creatures. Teach a child about forests, and encourage her to help these ecosystems thrive.

So suggests 365 Ways to Save the Earth (Abrams, 2005), for the day of August 16. This relatively compact coffee-table book, with an introduction by Elizabeth Kolbert, features stunning photos of nature around the world – from Greenland’s glaciers to Kenya’s flamingos to Uganda’s mountains to the deserts of Egypt and the treasures of Australia’s oceans. But the tantalizing pictures, from French photographer Philippe Bourseiller, are just one half of the book – the motivation for the accompanying messages. 365 Ways is a how-to guide, a daily manual for living a more Earth-friendly existence.

When the post-holiday sales begin and the throng of holiday guests starts to dissipate, it’s time for that prized end-of-year passtime: sitting on the sofa by the fire with a stack of tantalizing books. This year was a good one for books about the environment, and Amazon.com’s editors’ picks can show you some of what you might have missed.

In the Top 10 list for Outdoors and Nature, you’ll find Alan Burdick’s Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion, a gorgeously written journey through the world of invasive species. There’s also Tim Gallagher’s The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, the story of the amazing discovery of the bird many thought was extinct. And Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed by John Vaillant, which chronicles the circumstances surrounding the toppling of a massive and beloved tree in British Columbia.