Easter Books

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.

"Easter, Easter, Almost Here!" is a small board book that looks at Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Nice illustrations, rhyming words, and pages that are easy to wipe clean make "Easter, Easter, Almost Here!" a recommended board book for the very young.

Fr. Cantalamessa offers in book form the meditations on the paschal mystery he gave to the Pontifical household in Lent of 2004. He approaches the subject from four perspectives: the letter (the facts), allegory (what to believe), morality (how we act), and the anagogical (what we aim at).

In the first section, he addresses the reasons Jesus was put to death and the errors in such treatments as Mel Gibson's, "The Passion of the Christ" movie, which blames the Jews for Christ's death. In the same discussion he talks about subsequent mistaken theories that Jesus favored the Zealot movement, an idea often used in support of "revolution theology" in the 1960s and `70s.

Such are the meditations Cantalamessa presents: complex and scholarly, but within reach for those who wish to deepen their appreciation of the paschal mystery.

A wonderful book to tell the spritual story of Easter. The authors "explain" the origin of the Easter Egg after telling of Jesus' death and resurrection in terms a young child can understand and accept. Illustrations keep this from being a 5 star book, but the story more than makes up for the pictures.

Beginning with Mardi Gras and ending with Easter, this book has 41 days of trivia, crafts, recipes, activities and colorful stickers (not reusable). While this is a Christian book, it is not a devotional. It is colorfully illustrated with stickers to use to countdown the days. Many activities relate to the Easter trivia (e.g., hot cross buns), others are almost science experiments (growing grass in an egg shell or basket). This is a good source of ideas to make everyday of Lent a celebration.

This book was good for my son who is in 1st grade, but not an early reader. The story line, as in the entire series, is slightly different from other early readers. In this case, one of the students is afraid of rabbits. My son was proud to be able to read the book and used it for an optional book report. The illustrations are good and there is a lot of detail worthy of discussion. At the same time, it is relatively simple and not one a child would want to read over and over. Get free shipping and share the book with other children or donate to the class. I highly recommend the Robin Hill School series by Margaret McNamara.

Typically "Happy Snappy," but it would be better if it were a little bigger. Little ones will enjoy the pop-ups and looking for the Easter eggs.

"Hello Spring!" is a "Blue's Clues" Pre-Level 1 book in the Ready-to-Read series. It's a simple story, targeted at the youngest fans of the series. The contents are along the lines "Hello Spring! Hello sun! Hello ducks!" and so on. The pictures are lively and bright, but like the text are kept fairly simple, without too many details, to appeal to the very youngest readers.

This book is one of five in the compilation book Read Along with Blue! (Blue's Clues). If you're looking for more great "Blue's Clues" books, pick up that one instead and you'll get four other stories along with this one at a low price.

This book is great for smaller congregations that want to add a little variety to their services. Each of the four dramas are short and only require 1-4 people.

The first is a drama between two modern men discussing Lent. The second is a 2-man, 2-women Biblical-time drama on Resurrection morning. The third is a Judas monologue as he gets ready to betray Jesus. The final drama was written specifically for Easter Sunday between four Biblical women.