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.

Next Plan Idea:

Mardi Gras Activities for Kids

Shark Week generally happens in July, but any time is a good time to learn more about sharks.

First, start with some fun whale facts like these from Kids Craft Room. Here I learned about the dwarf lantern shark, which is the smallest shark and only grows to about 6-8 inches (about 15-20 cm) long. It also emits light. How cool is that?

Natural Beach Living has some great printable shark information guides, where kids can learn about different kinds of sharks, match the facts to the pictures, or print out doubles and do a shark memory game.

Living Life an Learning has some great shark activity pages including the parts of a shark, types of sharks, a crossword puzzle and more. Also check out their parts of a shark and word scramble download, and a life cycle worksheet.

Learn about how sharks float with this great activity from JDaniel4’s Mom.

Need more facts about sharks? This fact pact from The WOLFe PACK on Teacher Pay Teachers includes fact sheets, a printable flip book, informational text, vocabulary, comprehension questions and more.

Living Montessori Now has a great collection of shark themed activities with a Montessori inspired twist. You’ll find a shark roll and cover, shark phonics and lots more shark activities Deb has collected from all over the Internet.

Remember the “Sharknado” movie? A Few Shortcuts turned the combination of sharks and tornadoes into a fun science activity. You’ll need a bottle connector for this project but otherwise should have everything you need on hand. Use their template to make your sharks out of aluminum foil. So fun!

You can also do some shark themed coloring with these coloring pages from Encouraging Moms at Home. Or make a cool 3D shark with this template from korkotak. And there are tons of different shark crafts collected in this post from Kids Activities Blog.

Next Plan Idea:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply