Easter Story

I ordered this book to explain Easter to my 3 year old daughter. I felt that the content was very appropriate to the age. There was nothing graphic here to scare small children. For example, there is a picture of Jesus walking with the cross on his back, but no crucifixion scene. The story gives a brief synopsis of who Jesus was and what He did as far as miracles and healings so the kids have a point of reference about the character in the story. The amount of printed words on each page was very apprpriate for the age. My daughter wasn't anxious to get to the next page. The artwork is beautiful. This book is very lavishly illustrated in full scale artwork, not just line drawings. I would have liked to see a little more information given for 4+ year olds, but the reader can expound upon the story easily and add information as it is relevant. Overall, I was happy that my daughter developed a strong grasp of who Jesus is and started to recognize Him in other books and relate Him to dying eggs and hunting them. I would highly recommend this for parents of young children.

We bought this book for our two year old to understand and introduce the story of Easter and why we, as Christians, celebrate Easter. I originally thought I wanted "The Story of Easter" by the same author, but after reading the content in that book, I found it really wishy washy and fluffy - with statements like "this is why we go to church on Easter" and explaining why there are crosses on tops of churches and how spring is when we celebrate new life - without really getting around to new life in Christ (which I recognize is a big leap for the preschool set, but it seemed like the obvious next sentence, but it didn't appear and the page just fell flat). . . Relevant information, sure, but we go to church every week, not just on Easter and a lot of the content just seemed like filler, without getting into the Easter story. THIS book, on the other hand, was just what I was looking for. In about one sentence per page (perfect for short attention spans) it talks about where Jesus lived, some of the miracles he did, how he chose 12 apostles and told him that he would die for their sins, how they didn't understand, that Jesus died (no scary images of the crucifixion, just Jesus walking up a hill with a cross) and they were sad, but that on the third day he rose again as he said he would and finishes up with how Jesus is alive today and if we believe in him, we will live with him too, basically. This book is going in my son's Easter basket and I see him being interested in this particular book for the next two Easter's at least (and for future little ones in the future!). I really like this book and look forward to reviewing other board books by this author, but will be careful about which version I choose, as one seemed more Christian-oriented while the other seemed more commercially-oriented and light on the true reason for the season.

This version of the Easter story is the best one I have read for the toddler/preschool age (2-4). Some are either too graphic and scary, meant for an older audience. Or they go the other way and are so soft that you can't really even tell what the story is about. You have to acknowledge the fact that Jesus died to understand the joy in his coming back. I have another version that refuses to use the word die and it makes it very hard to tell the story that way. This is beautiful, simple and on track.