A shelf of gorgeous books for the child who'd rather be outside, digging, planting, catching bugs, naming everything they find. Some are get-outside stories, some are field-guide-ish books full of real facts, and all of them are lovely to look at and lovely to give. Pick the one that fits the child in front of you: there's a bouncy read-aloud for a little one, gentle garden stories for the middle years, and a big browsable nature book for an older child who wants the real names of things.
Browse it by the child you're buying for. It runs roughly youngest to oldest so you can find your spot. We're Going on a Bear Hunt is the read-aloud romp for the littlest. The Curious Garden and Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt are warm garden stories for the picture-book years, one about greening a whole city, one about the hidden world under the soil. An Egg Is Quiet and The Lorax sit in the middle: a hushed, beautiful nonfiction book about eggs, and Dr. Seuss's rhyming fable about taking care of the earth. And Nature Anatomy is the big, hand-drawn field book for an older child who reads facts for fun. Any one of them is a complete gift on its own.