Picture books have the potential to engage students in multimodal ways of learning in early education setting. This pilot study aims to investigate the efficacy of using picture books specifically written to convey increasingly complex ecosystem concepts and their influence on introducing ecoliteracy to first-grade students. Under the central theme of "ecoliteracy" the books introducing four sub-themes (nature, cycles in nature, biodiversity in the rain forest, introducing the phenomenon of bioluminescence) were presented at two-week intervals. The picture books were read aloud and followed by student responses to the text in writing. The questions examined in this pilot study are: What ecoliteracy competencies are highlighted in student responses? How do students demonstrate learning using ecoliteracy-rich books? The texts produced by students were analyzed to understand how students represented ecoliteracy concepts with respect to ecoliteracy domains. Student responses predominantly fell into the cognitive domain as opposed to emotional domain. These responses demonstrated how students extended learning by applying the knowledge to events in daily life, and a willingness to play with concepts. Elaborated in the discussion are the need for matching books with appropriate curriculum to meet the ecoliteracy goals, the significance of producing texts by young readers, and constraints for developing ecoliteracy.