Stories of New Life
Books for Easter and spring
I love that Easter comes in springtime. We remember Jesus’s death and resurrection just when the very world around us is bursting in new life.
Today I share two resurrection stories and three springtime stories (some of which are Easter-ish). Next month I’ll have another five stories for spring.
And one quick note: If you’re looking for Easter readings, I do have some below, but the best thing you could read is the Bible—the actual Bible. Pick any of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) and if you read one chapter a day, you’d finish the whole story of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection by Easter with several days to spare.
In my experience, kids really enjoy hearing the Bible read aloud, provided that you’re excited about it, too. It’s a big book, so they feel important having been deemed old enough to listen. It’s exciting. It’s raw and honest, full of death and pain and hard-to-understand statements and big words but graspable stories. It is God’s word, “quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.” Let’s give the real thing to our kids.
If you missed previous months’ lists, you can see the archive here.
Photo by Sergey Shmidt on Unsplash
Stories of new life
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The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross, by Carl Laferton, illustrated by Catalina Echeverri (affiliate link)
This is the book I most often buy as a gift—and it’s not even my preferred style of art! I’ve bought it year-round for nieces, nephews, and my friends’ children. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Just as a sermon helps you understand more than you would have gotten from reading the text on your own, this book helps our kids understand what they hear in the Bible about Jesus. It traces imagery from Eden to the tabernacle and temple and all the way to heaven. When we get to the temple curtain tearing in two, we know exactly why that’s significant.
The Easter Egg by Jan Brett (affiliate link)
Young Hoppi surveys the workshops of other rabbits painting, dyeing, carving, and decorating Easter eggs, but he struggles to decorate his own. He ends up shepherding a robin’s egg instead.
As always, the margin illustrations tell half the story, and Jan Brett’s detailed pictures are captivating. Every year, we attempt to model a few of our Easter eggs on those in the book.
Rechenka’s Eggs by Patricia Polacco (affiliate link)
Babushka crafts intricate eggs each year that win prizes across Ukraine, but this year she rescues a goose, who breaks her exquisite eggs. Will she have any Easter eggs this year?
Another great model for egg decorating!
The Biggest Story, by Kevin DeYoung, illustrated by Don Clark (affiliate link)
As in The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross, DeYoung tells the story of the Bible as it comes full-circle. The snake crusher prophesied in Genesis dies and resurrects, and brings us back to the garden with God.
This is a fully illustrated chapter book. Every page is in full color, enabling younger children to handle the chapters as well. Although it tells the story of the Bible, it is not a storybook Bible that attempts to hit all the famous parts of the Bible, but rather travels through the big themes.
This bestseller has turned into a whole series of curricula that I haven’t read and other spin-offs, including a board book version that I do own and consider quite good.
An Egg Is Quiet, by Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long (affiliate link)
Stunning illustrations paired with handwritten calligraphy make this book stand out. An egg is quiet, at first, and we take the quiet moments to examine them up close—what eggs look like, which creatures lay them, and what beautiful markings they bear.
Each Easter for the past several years, my kids have gotten one of Dianna Hutts Aston’s books in their Easter baskets. I recommend the whole series!
What are you reading this Easter season?
One Easter book I loved as a child is The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes. I should see if my parents still have it...
https://www.amazon.com/Country-Bunny-Little-Gold-Shoes/dp/0395159903
We love, The Garden, the Curtain and the Cross, as well! The Diane- Hutts Aston books are a favorite as well! Blessings, Rachelle!