By Patricia A. Pingry
The whole Easter story in about two hundred words, on the thick pages of a board book a toddler can hold alone.
In a couple hundred words, this board book tells the youngest child the Easter story from start to finish. Jesus, who loved everyone and was called the Good Shepherd, rides into Jerusalem, dies on a cross, and rises again on the first Easter morning. The telling stays calm and short, and the pictures are bright on thick pages made for hands that aren't gentle yet.
What sets it apart is that it's a real board book, not a picture book jammed onto stiff pages. A churchgoing family gets the true shape of the story, Palm Sunday through the cross to the empty tomb, in language short enough for a one- to four-year-old to sit through, and none of the scenes are frightening. If you want the religious story in a baby's or toddler's first Easter basket, this one is built for that age.