Vegan Kids Books β€” Children’s Books that Teach Kindness, Empathy, & Compassion

Children's books can be a great way to teach kindness, empathy, and love for animals. Books can also help parents talk about why we don’t eat animals, model vegan living, and share farm animal rescue stories. In this guide, we’ve compiled the best vegan kids books and books that help build values of compassion and mindfulness.
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Vegan Childrens Books for Kids
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We’re so excited to share this comprehensive guide to compassionate, kind, animal-friendly, and vegan kids books. Whether you’re a conscious parent looking for children’s books to read to your own little one(s), or you’re searching for compassionate books to gift to the vegan kids or young people in your life, we’ve got you covered!

These are exciting times we’re living in. Scroll back just a decade and there were virtually zero kids books written specifically for vegan kids. Parents were left to their own devices to try and navigate these topics with their kids. Today, there are new vegan children‘s books published every year and there are more vegan children’s books than ever before. Which is a really good thing.

Now more than ever we need to teach our little ones that compassion and kindness go a long way, and what better way to do this than through precious reading time.

vegan kid reading a book to his stuffed animal cow

Top 5 Vegan Kids Books

As you’ll see below, there is an ever-growing collection of vegan kids books coming to life. But as a team of moms and parents here at World of Vegan, we definitely have our favorites. Here are our top picks, chosen for the beautiful high-quality artwork, the friendly approachable message with concepts that don’t get too dark, and a positive ethical takeaway.

Interestingly, a few of our top picks are not specifically vegan books and are not even written by vegan authors, but they’re loved in homes of all types of eaters, and carry special significance to vegan parents and children. 

Linus The Vegetarian T-Rex 

By Robert Neubecker (Ages 2 – 12)

This fantastic kids book is our top pick for kids bookshelves. It’s not a specifically vegan book, so it’s a great read whether you identify as a herbivore, omnivore, or anywhere in between. But the sweet story, which takes place in a Natural History Museum, stars a little girl who loves dinosaurs and a very big, very strong, very vegetarian T-Rex!

linus the vegetarian t-rex book for kids

Junebug

By Nicole Daniels (Ages 1 – 6)

Teaching kindness to all creatures can be challenging for parents, especially when little ones play with other kids who model unkind behaviors. This book is the perfect sweet and fun way to show children why bugs deserve compassion too. This book illustrates how to teach other kids that it’s far more fun to be kind to bugs, watch insects instead of stomping on them, and collect pictures of them instead of catching them in nets.

junebug book about being kind to bugs and insects

Sprig The Rescue Pig & Gwen the Rescue Hen

By Leslie Crawford (Ages 4 – 7)

These beautifully illustrated animal rescue stories make a great addition to a vegan kids book collection. They help illustrate how all animalsβ€”including pigs and chickensβ€”are individuals and have personalities, emotions, and are deserving of love.

In the first book book, a charming pig narrowly escapes a terrible fate by leaping out of a truck and sets out on a fascinating adventure, finding friendship with a young girl.

Gwen the Rescue Hen vegan kids book cover
A peek inside the gwen the rescue hen book

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, & The Horse

By Charlie Mackesy (Ages 3 – Adult)

Globally recognized by adults and children alike for its thought-provoking illustrations, this book challenges us all to ask the simple (but most important and often overlooked) questions of life.

β€œWhat do you want to be when you grow up?” asked the mole.

β€œKind,” said the boy.

– The Boy and The Mole

This book has become and international phenomenon, and it’s an absolute essential in every household. It became so popular it was sold out in multiple countries. At the time of this writing, it has over 100,000 5-star ratings on Amazon. It would also make a great gift for yourself, the kids in your life, your sibling, your co-worker, your grandpa, and literally every human being.

hand holding out the boy the mole the fox and the horse book cover in backyard

Vivi The Super Vegan

By Tina Newman (Ages 5 – 9)

“I loved this story and Vivi’s mission to be a fierce protector of animals! Her story reminds us that compassion is a true superpower and that we each have the capacity to be real-life heroes to the animals who desperately need us to care more. Vivi’s idealism and the charming illustrations reflect a harmony between people and animals that I dream about!”

– Evanna Lynch, Actress in Harry Potter
vivi the super vegan book cover

More Vegan Children’s Books: A Growing List

These books are so beautiful and carefully written! Each of them touches the topic of compassion and empathy for animals in a different way but they all share the same core: animals are our equals. We picked from all age ranges for you to have a broad selection!

holding out cover of what kind of kind vegan kids book

If you prefer to share kindness with the littles ones without a focus on veganism, you also have plenty of options! These would be a great option if you need to gift non-vegan kids or families. These will do the trick, for sure!

Vegan Kids Books vivi the super vegan and slumberkins slumber sloth book

Vegan Kids Books by Ruby Roth

By Ruby Roth (Ages 4 – 8)

We have to give a big shout out to Ruby Roth, one of the first visionaries and vegan children’s book authors to emerge. She really paved the way for the books that followed. As a vegan teacher, she saw the urgent need to start spreading kindness form a very early age, which led her to write several vegan children storybooks and a vegan kids cookbook. Her titles include:

Her books do cover difficult topics and do touch on animal cruelty, so make sure your child is ready for those subjects and that you’re there to help explain them.

vegan is love by ruby roth

Vegan Kids Cookbooks

Teaching kids how to cook healthy food from a young age will benefit them for the rest of their lives! Giving them this skill and allowing them to fend for themselves in the kitchen can help them boost their confidence and awaken a love for healthy food!

We’ve also had lots of families share how much their kids love the recipes from The Friendly Vegan Cookbook!

Try giving your child a cookbook and allowing them to pick out a recipe that you’ll cook for them. This is a great way to involve and empower them in the kitchenβ€”without the mess!

A Growing Movement Of Vegan Kids & Vegan Parents

We all want the world to be a better place for all living beings, right? Spreading the vegan message is not only achieved in conversations or by sharing animal welfare-related posts on social media, but you can also pay attention to what the little ones in your life read. Teaching compassion and kindness is the best way to ensure that our future generations do better than our previous ones.

Teach Kindness to Childrenβ€”World of Vegan Kids Book Guide

More Resources for Vegan Parents & Kids

Kids are the future, and teaching kindness and healthy habits from a young age can change the world. That’s why we’re so passionate about bringing lots of resources for kids (and parents, and aunties, and uncles, and friends) to inspire compassion in the next generation. Here are some of our other favorite resources for vegan kids:

Cover photograph for this vegan kids book guide was designed by Michelle Cehn with Canva. This guide is not sponsored, and we only share products and companies we sincerely adore! This article does contain affiliate links, and shopping through these links supports World of Vegan. Thank you, and happy reading!

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11 comments
  1. Hi, World of Vegan!

    Thanks so much for the list of books about the Vegan way of life for children. My public library declined my offers of such books in part because they prefer books less than 2 years old. I found 5 in your list that qualify. Great beginning for my continuing search!

    Incidentally, AllCreatures recently notified me of this new one via its latest newsletter.
    The Be Kind Alphabet: Teaching Children Compassion Through Learning the Alphabet
    Book by Anouk Frolic

    In appreciation: Michael, of PEI

    • Thanks for sharing, Michael! We will check it out and see if it’s a fit for adding to our list!

  2. Really appreciate this list! Very helpful! I would also like to offer a children’s book that my 6 year old wrote. It is called Charlie Goes Vegan and is available on Amazon . πŸ™‚

  3. LOVE This the more book recommendations I can get the better

  4. Love this list! Thanks for sharing!

  5. So many lovely books! I wish there had been more kind and compassionate book options when my kids were growing up, but I’m very happy there are now. I especially love the The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and the Horse!!!

  6. I love this guide, keep the vegan kids books coming πŸ™‚

  7. wow. I can’t wait to read them all! love this so much!

  8. Loving all these vegan children’s books! Going to have to get some for my nephew πŸ™‚

  9. Also check for my vegan-specific activity books for kids on Amazon (search Bethany Veganna activity book). Thanks!

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