Easter is almost here! Holidays have been lots of fun in our family for the past year or so. My three-year-old is at an age where she is really appreciating and understanding the traditions and rituals that go into holidays. When she was very little we would dress her up in the appropriately adorable seasonal outfit and she’d have fun, but to her, it was just any other day. Now that she’s older she really gets into the festivities.
She’ll get excited about upcoming celebrations and wants to hear about Easter egg hunts and what family we’ll see. What dress she’ll wear and what color Easter eggs we’ll dye! “Whose birthday is next?”, she’ll ask, excited about singing happy birthday and eating cake. (The next birthday is Uncle John’s, and she’s constantly disappointed we can’t go to his party).
With the excitement of holidays comes the excitement for me for picking fun books for the season. I currently have these spring-y and Easter-y books lined up on the playroom wall:
We’re excited about reading about Easter egg hunts, chocolate chickens, and stories featuring baby animals and bunnies.
And while I like to get into the holiday spirit by reading books, Steve likes to bring out the holiday LEGOs! Ava seems to enjoy them too.
Here are some of our family’s personal favorite reads to create excitement for springtime and Easter, and awareness for holiday traditions.
While not an Easter book, Baby Farm Animals is my favorite children’s book to welcome springtime. It takes the reader on a tour around the farm and introduces all the baby farm animals and tells a little bit about them. Author and illustrator Garth Williams is probably best known for his work illustrating classics such as Charlotte’s Web and the Little House on the Prairie series. He does an amazing job of drawing and describing the farm animals that engages children while not talking down to them.
I’ve talked about Tomie dePaola before in this post and this one, and I keep adding his books to my favorites lists because they are just so good. My First Easter is written for very young children and babies. My three-year-old enjoyed the pictures of classic Easter imagery like eggs, bunnies, and Easter bonnets, but my baby seemed to enjoy the bright pictures and short sentences.
You can’t go wrong with a lift the flap book for toddlers. Happy Easter, Biscuit! features well-loved children’s book character Biscuit the puppy helping his little girl search for Easter eggs. You the reader get to join in the search with flaps on all the pages that sometimes hide eggs, and sometimes hide a different surprise!
Max’s Chocolate Chicken is a classic written and illustrated by Rosemary Wells. I love her illustrations, do you see the devilish grin on Max the bunny’s face? She does adorable creatures and intriguing stories very well. In this book, Max and his sister Ruby find a chocolate chicken in a birdbath one morning. Whoever finds the most Easter eggs gets the chicken, but Max is lagging behind!
Hopper Hunts for Spring is another book about springtime. Hopper the bunny’s mother tells him that spring is here! But Hopper goes in search of his new friend ‘Spring’ before his mother can tell him that spring is a season, not an animal. He goes on a hunt and makes new friends along the way.
If you’re in the mood for more spring books, check out In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb: A Springtime Book. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and happy springtime! Thanks for reading.
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