Book Review: The Easter Egg

A favorite Easter book of mine is Jan Brett's The Easter Egg. Jan Brett always creates the prettiest books; I could spend hours examining her illustrations. This book tells the tale of Hoppi, who wants to design the winning egg for the Easter Rabbit's contest. Along his little journey, he meets all his bunny friends who are designing the most elaborate eggs. I love Aunt Sassyfrass' chocolate egg, with its adorable edible details, including Peep-like chicks, and I have a softspot for Granny Ireney and her "story" eggs. (My husband's grandmother was Irene, making this is a perfect personal addition to this story for my family.)

Brett's illustrations are incredibly detailed, and often have little pictures off to the side which require a second glance. In this book, the drawings are framed with pussy willow branches... And those branches have a special surprise by the the end of the book! I won't ruin it for you. Check it out for yourself when you read it.

Jan Brett is a favorite in our house; Big Girl and I have spent many nights reading her books and looking at the pictures. We have also spent a lot of time looking at Brett's website, which has numerous links to printable coloring pictures and crafts with her illustrations.

For Easter, she has coloring pages with Easter eggs, or an Easter parade, or an illustration of Hoppi. There's also an Easter mural one can create with several coloring pictures -- if you need to keep your kids occupied this week while you get ready for the holiday, plop an Easter movie in the DVD player and pass out these pages; use them to create some holiday decorations for your house. You can also find some "Happy Spring" place mats to color for the Easter table, or better yet, if you have a "kids table" at your holiday celebration, put these down with a basket of crayons as an Easter dinner craft.

If you have a budding artist in your house as I do, Brett's website also has a few "How to Draw" videos by the artist herself.

Learn how to draw a chick:




Or a bunny:




I hope you enjoy Jan Brett's work as much as we do at The Peapod!