Book Review: Easter

For kids who haven’t grown up with Easter (and even those who have) reading books about the traditions around the holiday can help young readers know what the holiday is about and what it means to people who observe it.

Easter by Nancy Dickmann, illustrated by Emma Randall, follows a boy named Sam as he and his family celebrate Easter.

It starts with Mardi Gras, which the family celebrates by eating their favorite foods. Their father goes to church on Ash Wednesday and the book talks about giving things up for lent and making sacrifices to honor the sacrifice of Jesus. Of course this is not part of all Christian faith traditions so this could be interesting to talk about with kids who are Christian but don’t do anything special for Lent.

Because Easter is in the spring, Same and his family notice signs of spring and visit with baby animals, then they go to church on Palm Sunday and clean the house in preparation for their Easter visitors. They make hot cross buns and talk about the cross being a reminder of Jesus, but they’re also excited about the Easter bunny and dyeing Easter eggs.

The adults go to church a lot more than the kids, and the older kids go to a nighttime service on the night before Easter where there are candles and a bonfire. The younger kids go to church in the morning with their grandparents, then there’s an egg hunt and an Easter feast.

The back of the book includes the Easter story and a timeline of the Easter season. There’s also a look at Easter symbols like eggs, lilies, lambs and Easter bread, as well as instructions for making a basket out of paper strips and a recipe for hot cross buns. The book ends with a quick look at Easter celebrations from around the world and a quiz.

The book is really cute and tells a nice story about one family’s Easter traditions. Readers who aren’t Christian will get a good overview of the Easter season and what it means, while those who celebrate differently can compare and contrast the story with how their own family and church recognize Easter.

About the book: 48 pages, hardcover, published 2025 by words & pictures. Suggested retail price $14.99.

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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