Easter Books for Children

Easter is this weekend!  If you're children are like mine you've probably been reading Easter books, coloring eggs, doing crafts with plastic eggs, preparing Easter baskets, and going to local egg hunts.  Busy, busy! I wanted to share some of the books we love, and a couple craft ideas.

My childhood Easter book:  The Story of the Easter Bunnyby Katie Campbell
Published 1993 by Unicorn Publishing House

This was a book I got for Easter when I was in pre-school.  Somehow it has been very well taken care of and I now read it each year to my own children.   I love this book.  It does start off with a lot of words and might not keep young children's attention like shorter books, but it does have a nice pose to it to be read aloud.

Katie Campbell tell a story of the Easter bunny who use to be very small, as he grew he was picked on and went through struggles, until one day a child found him very weak and nursed him.  When he was better he wanted to thank the child so he made a basket, and painted eggs and left them for her, and he returned to his home where the other bunnies picked on him and he was a beautiful grown bunny.  The Story of the Easter Bunny is like and Easter version of The Ugly Duckling.
While the story is sad, the bunny runs away from home and has a hard time, it does end sweet with him growing into a beautiful bunny that gives gifts.

My favorite part of the book are the beautiful full page illustrations done by Mary Hildebrandt.  The illustrations are full of color and completely pull children into the story.  I love how the text isn't superimposed over the illustrations.  These attention grabbing illustrations are full of emotion, and tell the story all on their own, which with early readers is so important that they can look at the image and tell the story on their own before knowing how to read.  The emotions in the art also help children identify how the bunny is feeling, and can teach empathy.  "Look at the bunny here.  How do you think he feels?  How would you feel?  What could make him feel better?  What do you think of this?"

Craft Idea:  Aside from painting eggs with your kids have them paint kindness rocks and hide them to brighten someone's day.

I love painting rocks with my children, you can add words of inspiration or a message of kindness to them as well for others to find.

If you're having trouble coming up with some egg stuffing ideas you can add rocks to plastic eggs as well painting some for your children to keep or leave them unpainted for your little artist to paint.

I know for years The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter use to be a popular books for Easter, it's what many of us grew up reading and hearing around this time of year.  The story of Peter Rabbit tho isn't about Easter, or eggs.  The book is great for any time of the year.  We all know this book, Peter is a naughty rabbit who goes into Mr. McGregor's garden after his mama told him not to, and he find himself in some danger of the farmer, and the cat, and getting lost.  He of course gets home safe and his mom takes care of him, and puts him to bed while his siblings have a nice supper.

Grace Maccarone has taken The Tale of Peter Rabbit and continued it into an Easter story in her book Peter Rabbit's Happy Easter.
Published 2006 by Scholastic

I love how this book picks up right where the Tale of Peter Rabbit leaves off, it starts with Peter waking up the next morning feeling bad for not listening to his mama.  This makes the book both able to be read on it's own or part of a story time where it can follow the original story Beatrix Potter wrote.

The story is fun and engaging, while the writing is simple to keep the attention of young readers.  The story is super cute with how the eggs were collected, an accident paints them, then how they were hidden.  I love that this story comes out and says "you should not take what isn't yours."  This lesson is very important for children.

The illustrations in this more recent story stay very close to those we grew up with in the original story.  This is because David McPhail did the illustrations for both books.  They are colorful, and detailed and tell the story.  They engage the children and keep their attention.  I love that in the second book there is more humor in the illustrations and made the children (my children) laugh and talk about what was happening.



Craft Idea:  To go along with using eggs collected from chicken, save your egg shells (wash them out) and fill them with paint and use the eggs to paint with.  A couple years ago I tried it out with my children.  The Easter bunny left paint and canvas for each girl and I saved egg shells and they had fun throwing the eggs full of paint at the canvas.



My youngest has always love Lift-the-Flap books and she has come across two books that she loves and we have read over and over:

Dora's Rainbow Egg Hunt
I love books that have children's favorite TV show character's in them.  I think they draw young children to them and make them want to read their book.  Dora has long been a favorite in our house.
Dora's Rainbow Egg Hunt goes through the colors of the rainbow (leaving out indigo) as they collect Easter Eggs of each color. As with all Dora books children get an introduction to Spanish.  Each flap they lift has something of the color under it "A yellow snake. Una culebra amarilla." The child keeps lifting flaps until they find the hidden egg "The blue egg. El huevo azul." The sturdy board book pages are great for wear and tear, and this book is shorter than most of the Dora stories we have read which is nice for children who have short attention spans.  The only down side to this book besides not including all seven color of the rainbow is that many of the flaps are tiny so the text on those tiny flaps is even smaller!

Craft Idea: To go off the colors they children learn with Dora take plastic eggs and have the child name the color and help you glue them together and make a Easter Egg door wreath.

If you don't have plastic eggs or want to do something different you can also cut out egg shapes and have the child color them in and glue them together to form a wreath.


The Easter Bunny left us what is my favorite lift-the-flap Easter book two or three years ago:
  Peter Cottontail's Easter Surprise
Written by: Joseph R. Ritchie
Illustrated by: Lydia Halverson
Published by CandyCane Press copywrite 2006

This is another sturdy board book and unlike Dora the flaps you lift up are large and thicker.  These differences has made the book I found at a thrift store last the past two or three years with much use and still is in great shape.

In this Easter Surprise book we are finding what Peter has left for each animal, so it's a different take than the other books I've listed here. 

As we meet each animal, we are told about them and get to guess what is in their egg.  The short pose is easy to read and rhymes. I love that there are new words introduced.  Instead of keeping the wording super simple like many board books do there are more colorful words to increase vocabulary.  "Happy Jack is on the prowl," not just hunting.  Each page reads like a fun adventure poem.  I've read this book at least 7 times this past week and it's still fun to read out loud.  I also want to mention how creative the gifts are that are inside the eggs.  Coconut covered cheese balls for the mouse.

Lydia Halverson has done a great job with the illustrations, so the child's attention stays on the page and helps them follow along with the story.  The little image of Peter Cottontail looking out of the text box to spy on the animal finding his gift is a cute touch.  Colorful and engaging. This book is one your little one will love for years to come.


I hope you all have a very HAPPY EASTER!

Benny's Pennies: so many lessons in one book

I came upon Benny's Pennies when I was looking for a book to read to my daughter's preschool, I wanted to talk to them about giving to others.  At first I was happy to have found a preschool level book that touched on that subject but as we read it and I shared the book more talking to others about what we were doing at the school I realized that this book had so many lessons that we could (and did) tie into it.

This post will be a bit longer than most of my others, I hope you don't mind.  I want to share not only the review of Benny's Pennies but also all the lessons we've used from that book at home at in the preschool so that you can use them in your own way.

Benny's Pennies

Written by: Pat Brisson

Illustrated by Bob Barner

Copywrite: 1993

Published by Dragonfly Books

The illustrations you will notice right off aren't hand drawn, painting, or digital images that we are use to in many children's picture books.  There is a really need note in the begining of the book about how Bob Barner created the art used.  I found this note and different style to be fasinating and it would make a fun craft to do with children of any age.  The note said that he used torn and cut papers from five different countries, pastels, colored pencils, glues, and paints to create each picture.  They also tell that the typography was done by Lynn Braswell.

The illustrations is Lesson 1: ART! Get out that box of scraps and whatever you have laying around.  Have the children make their own picture.  Or if you want to have more structure there are some amazing ideas on Pinterest!  For older kids you might want something really detailed (like this flower).  For preschoolers you can have them write their names with torn paper.

The story of Benny's Pennies is really sweet.  Benny has five pennies and he goes out and buys something with each penny.  As Benny is walking the story tells of what he buys and how many pennies he has left. Throughout the story there are small rhymes "Mr Hopper said 'You're quite the shopper." Once Benny has no more pennies left and his arms are full he goes back home.  Who are all the items for?  He spent all his money on things for his family.  He didn't get anything for himself!

I love that!  I love the teaching of selflessness, and giving to others.  Those pennies were his, he could have gotten himself cookies, candy, and whatever, but he got everyone else something instead.  At the end I asked the group I read to how they thought Benny felt.  Have you ever given something to someone before?  If they can't think of a time you can say maybe for someone's birthday, they give gifts and don't get any in return.  How does it make you feel to give a gift?

My youngest daughter's school has a really neat system set up that there are jars in each classroom for children and parents to put their spare pennies, these are then counted, but in a bank account, and saved for when needed.  This money is then used to help families in the school who might have something major happen.  Some examples, a family loses their house to fire, a child is sick and needs to stay at a hospital far away and insurance doesn't cover the family's stay there, a loss of a parent or child.  These are very hard times for a family to go through.  These are things we never think will happen to us but unfortunately they do.  A group of parents from the school is then gathered and they vote on how much of the money to give to the family in need.  This is such a blessing to have set up, for the times that it's needed.   I love that the school has something like that set up to help out their own families.

I read Benny's Pennies to the class to introduce them to their own way to give to others.  A couple kids started to call the jar of pennies "Benny's Pennies" while others just said they were bringing in pennies to help sick kids.  It was really sweet to watch them and see how empathetic they were about this money is going to help someone one day.  I loved watching my daughter dig through our cup holders, and constantly stop to pick up a penny to put in her classroom's jar.

At home we have taken this idea of charity and applied it to nickles.  So as we come across nickles they go in a small pickle jar, when that is full we will take it to donate to a charity.  We are doing a smaller jar because it will fill up faster for one, and we can give to more charities than just one.  Since my oldest daughter is 9 now I plan to have her help research all our local non-profits, and charities, and learn more about each of them and ways to help them along with donating what we've saved.


"A small amount today will make a big difference tomorrow"

Lesson 2: Charity-The act of giving to others without getting anything in return.  That's the main lesson of the book and what we just talked about

Lesson 3: Math!  Benny starts out with 5 pennies, each time he buys something he has one less.  There are many counting stories like this; each one teaches children math.  You can take this a step farther and have pennies for them to play shopping with.  Set up a sheet of paper for them to count to 50 (this helps in you are rolling change)   If you are saving change you can make a number line and have them guess how many pennies (or nickles or whatever) you have.

Lesson 4: Price & Values.  The one thing about this book that bothered me and made me laugh a bit is that you cannot buy anything today for a penny!  I felt like the book was giving kids a false sense of money that you can't buy a cookie for a penny.  I do however know that it takes a long time for children to understand money and money values.  My youngest call all coins pennies, all bills are a dollar.  Therefore this everything is paid for with a penny is understandable.  You can turn this into a lesson on it's own.  Start pointing out the price of things the cookie you want with lunch is .50 that is 50 pennies, or 2 quarters.  It will take them a while to understand but it's a start.

From there you move on to Lesson 5: Savings!  for older preschool kids, Kindergarten and up, have them start saving their money to buy something they want.  How? Chores.  Look for chores that are suggest for their age.  We started this and it's been working well, if they don't do the chores they don't earn the money, it's pretty simple.  I made this chart for them and you will notice that they aren't earning $5 a day, most chores are between .10 to .25 each with the exception of bigger jobs.  Feeding the animals they don't earn on, that's part of being a pet owner.  (This is my opinion you can do as you wish in your house)  Now why am I giving them so little?  For one I can't afford to pay them $5 every day.  I am against allowances, you can can earn your money.  Two, we have a spare change jar, so it made sense, as soon as the dog is walked I can give them a dime, it's instant reward.  Also since they are young the chores are easier (and I usually have to reload the dishwasher, finish and re vacuum, ect) as they grow and doing dishes entail loading, running, and unloading the dishwasher along with washing items by hand they will earn more.  You can adjust this to how you feel is best.
I also saw this idea on pinterest that fits well for jars for the kids/family: save, spend, give.

Readability of Benny's Pennies.  I held the attention of the preschool I read to (ages 3-5) very well as I had they help calling out how many pennies and the book kept them engaged throughout it.  I'd say it's great for kids ages 4-8.  Pair it with other books focused around helping others and it would work well for any story time.

The Bottom Line: A Great Lesson Book

The Story Line: is easy to read, fast paced, fun, engaging, and has a beautiful lesson.

The Illustrations: are unique, colorful, and aid the story.

"To give and not expect return, that is what lies at the heart of LOVE"
-Oscar Wilde

Not A Box!

Everyone with or around kids know how fascinating cardboard boxes are for children.  Kids can play with a box for hours - sometimes the box is better than what came out of it! Antoinette Portis completely understands how a child's imagination works.

Have you seen Baby's First Christmas? If you haven't seen the video it's worth the 3 minutes, I laughed so hard, and the end with the box, it's every Christmas for the first 2 to 3 years!  Those first few Christmas with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers are the memories that Not a Box made me think of.  I love this book, I love everything about it, the illustrations, the concept, the simplicity of it all come together so well.

The Details:

Written and Illustrated by Antoinette Portis

Published by Harper Collins

Awards: Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor

Age Range (according to Amazon) 2-4years

Not a Box is a very easy read.  Each page spread has one sentence, the longest being six or seven words.  It's a great book for preschoolers and Kindergarten, to read aloud to little ones or to build confidence in those who are starting to read on their own.

The illustrations are so cute!  They are simple line drawings in black and red.  I think the simplicity of the bunny and the box is key to the next page where in red over the black outline from before is a new picture with more detail.  It shows what adults see compared to what a child is seeing.  I love it!  As you read "Why are you standing on a box?" before you turn the page have the children guess what the box could be.  Really spark their imagination.  Maybe he's standing on the box because he's the ring leader at the circus.  Maybe she is sitting in the box because she's the caption of a spaceship that's going to Mars.  Give them the chance to open their minds to all the possible things that box could be.

After finishing Not a Box I wanted to go and get a huge empty box for my girls to play in.  At Christmas time they do just that until the box no longer can stand up.  An empty box is just fine, but as the kids get older check out some of these cute ideas on things to make with boxes I've found on Pinterest that I love: box train, a huge castle, rocket ship or plane, there are so many ideas! From play sets to games to useful art easel.  Have cats?  How about making a cat tower?  Comment below what you've made and how it worked out.

Antoinette Portis also wrote a similarly named book Not a Stick.  This one I haven't read yet, my guess is that it's along the same lines of Not a Box, but kids running around with sticks makes me nervous that someone will get hurt.

There are also several other books about boxes that I now have to check out.  I think we might have to have a box party one day with all these great titles:


May your creativity and imagination be limitless!