What Nature Teaches Us

Nature has been teaching us since the very first sunrise. This book is one boy's attempt to listen.

What Nature Teaches Us: A Book About Being the Light is a poetic, fully illustrated read-aloud that helps children and adults make sense of big feelings, change, and belonging through the everyday wonders of the natural world. Coauthors Clay Vilhauer, a nine-year-old author, and his mom, Amber, invite readers to step away from the tsunami of noise, screens, and pressure to perform and discover what Earth's gifts have to say.

Readers will experience each element of nature and the lesson it carries:

• The rock “stays grounded no matter what is happening around it,” inviting us to reconnect with the steady wisdom beneath the noise.
• The sun “shines on everything all the time . . . everything grows because of it,” modeling generosity and consistency.
• The ocean is “calm and steady or wild and crashing, it doesn’t call one good or the other bad,” helping us remember that who we are is enough.
• The cloud “can hold heavy things and still move forward,” reminding us that we can carry hard feelings and keep going.
• The tree is “connected by roots, holding the whole forest together,” reminding us that we grow stronger when we stay rooted in community.

The gentle, thoughtful text is paired with minimalist watercolor artwork by South African fine artist Joni-Leigh Doran.

Near the end, a “your turn” section encourages children and adults to go outside, choose a leaf, stone, feather, or bug, draw or tape it in, and write what it is teaching them, turning the book into a living conversation between nature and the reader. 

Perfect for bedtime, classrooms, counseling sessions, and waiting rooms alike, What Nature Teaches Us is both a comfort and a practice for those carrying more weight than anyone sees: a way for us to Be The Light, and to help someone else remember theirs.