Easter Books

Reviewed by Kelli Glesige for Reader Views (2/07)

Jane Delaney's new car has been hit by the famous opera singer, Keene Morray. Taking care of an ill mother, Jane has struggled to make her financial ends meet and wonders what she will do now while she recovers from her injuries suffered in the car accident. As his shortcomings caused the accident, Keene takes responsibility for Jane's situation and also hires Jane as his new personal assistant while he finishes his business in Providence, before he heads back to New York.

Jane's faith is an extremely important part of her life, and Keene soon sees this in Jane's actions and the activities she pursues. In fact, Jane will be playing a major part in her church's Easter cantata, an annual event that has many attending the cantata coming to Christ due to the intense emotions portrayed by the actors.

A serious health problem finds the lead actor, Jim Carter, who was to portray Jesus, unable to play the part. There appears no other option but to cancel the cantata with the doctor's diagnosis of throat cancer, unless Jane can coax Keene to take on the part of Jesus. This is almost unimaginable, for Keene is a well-known and respected opera singer who has a contract and is paid to do a job. Why would he agree to a free will part at the local church? And the biggest obstacle of all is that Keene is an atheist. How believable could he be as Jesus if he is an unbeliever?

Overcoming many hurdles to make it happen, Keene finds himself taking on the part of Jesus, for his heart is being swept away by Jane and her unending faith. Jane struggles with Keene's decision of playing Jesus, even if the alternative is canceling the cantata, if Keene does not believe in God. Jane prays to God to help break the ice in Keene's heart. During the last performance, Keene makes a life changing decision.

"Down from the Cross" is a story of accepting Christ in one's life and the change it can bring about. Keene finds Jane, a beautiful woman he loves, and a faith he can live peacefully with. Through Jane, Keene's life changes with his acceptance of Jesus into his heart.

If you question your faith or know someone who does, "Down from the Cross" might be a good story to listen to. It is an audio book of four disks and carries a message of faith. It is meant to show the change that can and will take place, no matter what the situation, if you accept Jesus and live your life committed to him. "Down from the Cross" is a Christian romance that adult readers and listeners will likely enjoy the most. It is meant to show how God can work miracles in all our lives, if we will only accept Him.

A warm and touching story about a bunny family.(It could be any family.) The children bunnies just want to play when it is time to do the spring cleaning. They realize how tired momma and poppa bunny are after cleaning and want to do something nice for them. What every parent would like to see in their children, kindness, sensitivity and thinking of others. The pictures are bright, colorful and feel like spring. The ryhming text makes the story flow. I would like to see the book in hard cover again. My favorite Easter Book!

This was a story about Miss Harrington took her young cousin, Nora, to London to enjoy a bit of town life and Easter celebration before this 17-year old, high-spirited child settles down with a 36-year old, aloof, retired spy, Andrew Norville, under a high-handed marriage proposal. But they run in to incidence after incidence along the way; and caused mystery after mystery; eventually everything was solved through riddles after riddles, and all the main characters and sub-characters found their rightful companions, and a happy ending.

This was more of a mystery and spy story than a romance story. Ms. Gedney gave a lot of background on history of the war and information on customs and practices of the Easter holiday, which I enjoyed reading very much, but not a whole lot on the chemistry and affections among characters; in fact, she handled them like a mystery plot to achieve the surprise ending without much in-depth explanations. I was a little disappointed with characters' development (because couple of them were very annoying, especially Nora, I kept wishing that she will either grow up or be disciplined), but I really enjoyed all the riddles, I think they were very clever. I did enjoy reading the book, well, most of the time anyway.

In this story, the Care Bears are hunting for Easter eggs. They visit Care-a-Lot Farms to collect eggs, then they paint the eggs, then they hide them so that they can find the colorful surprises. The plot of this book is very simple and there's only one sentence per set of pages. I suspect this book is targeted towards the series's youngest fans, but it can still be enjoyed by anyone who likes the Care Bears, particularly for the bright and cheery illustrations.

This board book is a rerelease of a story that originally came out in paperback. I haven't read the paperback version as of this review, though I suspect that the story has been greatly simplified for this board book version.

Join the fun in this darling fourteen page, paperback, pop-up book about an "Easter Egg Hunt". It is Easter morning, and a busy, little bunny is hopping about hiding Easter eggs for the up-coming festivities. The children enter the scene on the next page. They literally leap off the page and, begin racing eggs down a large grassy knoll. Attached to the pop-up is a pull-tab that simulates running, when pulled. This fun, interactive feature actually works, and enhances the enjoyment of the book. The hunt in on... the children chase to and fro hunting for eggs. They search up and down, and in and around, while a friendly squirrel pops out of a tree, and the Easter Bunny pops out from behind a flowerpot. This scene is very cute, and celebrates the joy of the holiday. On the next page, a very proud, little boy pops off the page. He is holding a basket-full of eggs and says, "We'll find all the eggs, I'll find a whole bunch." Turn the page, and the entire scene pop's-up. A group of children are sitting under some trees eating sandwiches and they announce, "Then tomorrow we'll eat egg salad for lunch."

The watercolor images are full-color spreads, and each page features a pop-up highlight. There is a folksy flavor to Ms. Westcott's illustrations ~ simple, yet colorful, and always amusing. This particular publication is quite vivid, and cheerful! One might say it is appropriately spring-like. The text appears on both sides of the book, and it flows like a river. "Easter Egg Hunt" is a well-written story with delightful pop-up renderings that my son adores. Two-years and up.

P.S. If you do not own a Nadine Bernard Westcott, do yourself a favor, and pick one up. My personal favorites ~ The Farmer Brown series.

I purchased this book from Amazon prior to Easter along with several other titles ("The Egg Tree" by Katherine Milhouse, Brian Wildsmith's "Easter Story," "An Easter Celebration," and "Birds' Gift") to help kick-off in earnest our family library of seasonally-appropriate children's books. While I'd consider each book a welcome addition to our collection and sound choices for our children, "Easter Eggs for Anya" was the unequivocal gem of the lot.
The story is simple, but well told, the illustrations are quite good (I'm very picky about children's book illustrations and these really are nice), and the underlying message (gratitude and joy in the Resurrection of Christ at Easter) is neither heavy-handed nor watered-down.
The story is told from the perspective of Ukrainian peasants and, as a result, includes mild cultural references, in the text and in illustrations, that are uniquely Ukrainian. However, they are minor additions explained in the text and hardly off-putting to adult readers or child listeners. As the tradition of dyeing Easter eggs originates from the ancient Ukrainian practice, I would assert that this book is a welcome addition in any family that celebrates Easter, regardless of their cultural background. My mother-in-law, who hasn't a slavic bone in her body, absolutely loved the book. As does my three-year-old son (who has only a few, very small slavic bones).
The book is pro-Easter, pro-Easter eggs, pro-family, pro-Christ, pro-Christian, pro-prayer, and pro-Ukrainian.

This book is EXCELLENT! It has a directory of hidden easter eggs, and explains them, and much, much more!

Marian Bythell's charming book leads the reader into a delightful journey as she invites us to join her on a typical British holiday exploring Kent with her husband, Peter. Initially rather mundane journal entries become fascinating adventures triggered by the careful use of domestic detail and curious symbolism.
Read this book to escape the mundanity of every-day life by jumping into the world of Marion and her transcendental experiences...

This a delightful book for those imaginative souls who like to promote individualism and purpose in life. There is this pig who knows he is destined for more out of life than just hanging out on the farm. He discovers magic in Easter and ways he can help make it more interesting. I especially recommend this book for those families who have baskets filled with other than the traditional jelly beans, chocolate bunnies, and fuzzy chicks.

This book is a wonderful way to introduce children to the bible at Easter time. The illustrations are truly gorgeous. The author trained at the Stroganov Academy of Fine Art in Moscow, and the illustrations are very much in the Russian tradition of religious art. What a beautiful book.