Hope and New Life!: An Easter Story (Festival Time)

This book's story opens with Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. Children learn how Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. On Holy Thursday, Mom, Dad, and older children attend services and have bread and wine to commemorate Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples. At home, the kids color Easter eggs and eat sticky hot cross buns, and on Easter Sunday, all go to church and sing songs to celebrate how Jesus came back to life. After services, the children enjoy an Easter egg hunt, see the Easter Parade, and celebrate the renewal of life. Festival Time books depict the activities of typical families, as Mom, Dad, and children celebrate holidays that have special religious or cultural significance for them. Cheerfully attractive color illustrations supplement a simply-told story of the holiday's origins and a description of the festivities that are part of that holiday. Festival Time books can be read aloud to toddlers, but are easy enough for many first and second graders to read to themselves. Each book's final two-page spread is written mainly for parents, offering suggestions for ways to communicate the holiday's meaning to kids. (Ages 3-7)