A little shelf of books to tuck into an Easter basket instead of one more chocolate rabbit. Some are pure spring — bunnies, painted eggs, a duckling hatching — and some tell the Christian Easter story gently for a churchgoing family. Pick one and you've given something that outlasts the candy. Choose by two things — whether you want the secular or the religious kind, and how old your child is — and every one on the shelf is gentle.
Every book here is its own complete Easter gift, and you pick by taste and age. The front of the shelf is all spring and no religion: a plucky mother bunny who becomes an Easter Bunny, a dreamy duckling-hatching classic, a bright counting romp with the cookie-book mouse, and Beatrix Potter's tiny Peter Rabbit. The back of the shelf is for a family that wants the Christian story, told gently at three different ages — a tender polar-bear conversation, a two-hundred-word board book for a toddler, and a glowing folktale for an older child. All gentle in delivery; the religious three simply name that Jesus died and rose.