Most of subject matters in children’s literature are closely related to describing living and non-living creatures in the pristine nature. This study aims to analyze how well-known picture books in British and American literature crystallize ecologically meaningful awareness, focusing on the relationship between nature and civilization. As the story goes by, children's wish to possess physical objects in nature is gradually transformed into acquiring aesthetic contentment within the boundary of civilization. When they recognize their cognitive as well as physical distance from the wilderness, they do not attach themselves to the physicality of the wild nature any more. They substitute aesthetic contentment for their possessive desire by turning the physical nature into abstract and playable concepts. On the supposition that aesthetic contentment is not fossilized in the form of anthropomorphic reformulation of Mother Nature, the feelings of hospitable nature can provide them with a stepping stone for seeing through intricacies in the real nature. Sensitivity to nature begins to sprout from overcoming possessive instinct, perceiving natural beauty, and to finding out the inseparable tie between nature and the self. In this sense, reading children’s literature contributes to having well-balanced views about nature.