The Story of Easter: An Easter And Springtime Book For Kids (Trophy Picture Books (Paperback)) by Aileen Fisher

The Story of Easter: An Easter And Springtime Book For Kids (Trophy Picture Books (Paperback)) Reviews

• 
  Luisa Knight

  This is more of a text book explanation than a story. The book explains Jesus's death and resurrection and how many of the Easter traditions began that we still celebrate today.
  
  Ages: 7 - 10
  
  #easter #spring #christian
  
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• 
  Charlotte S

  This book wonderfully tells the blessed story of Easter, but it also includes how people around the world celebrate Easter. It's a great resource for teaching kids about the TRUE meaning of Easter!
  
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• 
  Mark

  The illustrations are A+!
• 
  Ebookwormy1

  Captivating illustrations and simple text tell the story of Jesus life, ministry and resurrection, followed by a discussion of the many symbols and customs of the Easter Celebration.
  
  While I found the book wonderfully done, I'm perplexed by it's treatment of Jesus' Jewish heritage. This is particularly evident in this page which niggles me:
  
  "The date of Easter is not the same from year to year. Most people celebrate on the first Sunday after the first full moon in spring. But Orthodox Christians use a different date. They celebrate Easter on the Sunday following Passover. Long before the celebration of Easter began, people celebrated a spring festival. They danced and gave gifts. They rejoiced over the rebirth of life in the fields and woodlands. After the Christian religion spread to many lands, the joy of Jesus' Resurrection became mingled with the joy of the spring festival. Both celebrations stood for new life. Both stood for hope in the hearts of people. And so it is not strange that many of the customs of the old spring festival became a part of our celebration of Easter." (page 13? no page numbers)
  
  Clearly, you can see from this text that while other ideas will be discussed, the focus is the European and, by extension, North American, celebration of Easter. Also, the thought flow implies that spring festival predates Easter, and while there are spring festivals in the ancient world prior to Jesus' resurrection, Passover predates them all! Therefore, the Orthodox use of the date makes a lot of sense. Nonetheless, the story continues on with focus on symbols connected with the spring festivals that came to be associated with Easter. Mention of the Jewish practices (without reference to their ancient origins) are dealt with tritely. For example a page about spring festival symbolism in giving and decorating eggs ends with the single sentence: "The egg is also one of the ritual foods eaten at Passover."
  
  Though the story focus' on European celebrations, some mention is made of Asian cultures such as China and Persia. This may be related to the struggle to connect with Semitic roots. This is an unfortunate negligence in a otherwise simple and compelling explanation of both the Resurrection story and the Easter Celebration.
  
  So close! Recommended with caveats .... 4 stars.
• 
  Tam

  This was a good way to introduce the reason we celebrate Easter. We are Christians but there were some things mentioned that my family doesn't celebrate (Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday,Eucharist, or Good Friday) so it was also a good chance to explain what these are to my children.
  
  This book explained the tradition of eggs and why they are associated with Easter, how decorating eggs began in Europe and what they do in different countries, easter egg hunts, the Easter bunny and traditions that some people do.
  
  At the end it gave ways to decorate eggs with wax, crayon, blocking, and layering colors. It also had a recipe for Hot Cross Buns.
  
  One illustration really bothered my children. The picture of Christ on the cross. Underneath the cross there was a small pile of dirt and inside was a skull. They couldn't figure out why it was there and wouldn't listen to any explanation I gave.
• 
  Carmen

  Re-read for Easter 2011: This is a nice explanation of Easter for young children. Definitely Christian, but also includes pre-Christian and other spring rituals that we have incorporated into the celebration. It does this in a way that does not detract from neither those ancient practices (the egg, the rabbit, etc.) nor the Christian Easter story.
• 
  Debra Golden

  Very good - mostly full explanation of Easter and traditions
• 
  Jess

  April 2017 - gives a good overview of the lead-up to Easter, with a few more pages describing various traditions for celebrating it and the symbolism of various things (eggs, rabbits, etc.) Western-centric view of Christianity for sure, but the retelling of the Gospel stories was helpful. Ben was particularly interested in the crucifixion this year ("why are they poking him? Is he bleeding?") which just reminds me how difficult it is to share the real meaning of Easter with small children ("I don't want to die" in response to an explanation about eternal life).