My favorite gifts to give or receive are books! When my children were younger, I would add to our Christmas-book basket every year. There's precious little to be found when it comes to Easter books, however.
Pauline Books and Media has a new read-aloud book for Easter that links the Bible story of Jesus's Passion to the custom of coloring Easter eggs. Simon of Cyrene and the Legend of the Easter Egg by Terri DeGezelle is a clever retelling of an old German legend. In this story, the man pressed into service to help Jesus carry His cross encounters the apostle John and is invited by Jesus' friends to stay with them, and he remains with them until after the Resurrection. The basket of eggs he had brought to the city to sell at the market goes almost forgotten until he returns home with it and discovers a wonderful change!
At the end of the book, readers learn about Simon, his hometown, and the traditional stories about his family. The book ends with a prayer for courage and compassion: perfect to pray as a family during the Easter season.
[tweet "Easter treats for preschoolers, teens from @Paulineauthors. Review by @franciscanmom"]
Tweens, teens and adults alike will enjoy the chance to express their creativity with a new coloring book for prayer and meditation, Scripture Illuminated, also from Pauline Books & Media. Artist Estelle Chandelier provides 80 pages of beautifully-lettered Scripture passages in the time-honored style of illumination. Emmanuelle Rémond-Dalyac offers a useful and fascinating introduction to the art of illumination, explaining the various styles of illumination and even listing the pages with each corresponding style.
The designs in this scriptural coloring book are two-page spreads. Use these scriptures as an invitation to prayer as you color.
Pair this book with a set of coloring markers and give it to your favorite aspiring artist! These designs are delicate; markers, pencils or gel pens will work better than crayons.
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Be sure to check out our Book Notes archive.
Copyright 2017 Barb Szyszkiewicz, OFS
About the Author
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