{"id":86,"date":"2022-03-17T13:04:53","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T13:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/2022\/03\/17\/easter-resources\/"},"modified":"2023-12-26T23:59:50","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T23:59:50","slug":"easter-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/blog\/easter-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Favorite Books and Resources for Easter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">With Easter being just a month away, many of you are beginning to look for books and resources to prepare little hearts for celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. Whether you\u2019re looking for a light enjoyable read or something a little more theological, I think you\u2019ll find some good options here from a list of our favorites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"748\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/EasterResourcesBlog.jpg?resize=500%2C748&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-597\" style=\"width:350px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/EasterResourcesBlog.jpg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/EasterResourcesBlog.jpg?resize=201%2C300&amp;ssl=1 201w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3wdsI7l\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Journey to the Cross<\/em><\/a> by Helen Haidle. \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605 All of these resources are our favorites, but this one is the FAVORITE of the favorites. If you could only buy one of these resources, I\u2019d tell you to grab this one for sure. This book goes into great detail starting with Palm Sunday and going through Passover week and ending with the time AFTER the Resurrection. If you\u2019re looking for a lot of details and historical facts, this one is for you. It\u2019s set up like a Bible story book starting with the passages the Bible story comes from (which you could look up and read if you\u2019re using with older children), and then goes into a summary of the story. It\u2019s got fantastic illustrations. And one thing I personally love is that each chapter has little blurbs with extra information\u2026specifically historical background, so you\u2019re getting the Bible story PLUS extra knowledge about the subject matter. (I was learning so much myself reading through this with E.) And as an added bonus, it\u2019s simple enough for a child to read on his own as well. *Non-KJV<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3IhCYh9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Benjamin\u2019s Box<\/em><\/a> by Melody Carlson. \u2605\u2605\u2605 This book is a mix between a fiction story about Benjamin and of course, the Resurrection story. Most of the pages have a colored egg at the top which goes hand in hand with one of the resurrection eggs (which I will explain below.) I specifically got this book to do with the kids in Sunday school because it sounded like so much fun, and of course, they absolutely loved it! By the way, the Benjamin\u2019s Box book is on Hoopla, and it\u2019s a read along\u2026which means it has audio! It\u2019s a great way to try before you buy, or just use this for completely free. But in being completely up front about this book, here are a couple of critiques that are completely personal preference\u2026While it is made to use with the resurrection eggs, the colors of the eggs don\u2019t match, and there is one egg that is completely skipped over (the rooster egg). It\u2019s also a very watered down version of the Resurrection story, especially after reading Journey to the Cross\u2026it would probably would be really good for little ones, but not enough meat for older children. (The nice thing is that the Resurrection Eggs kit comes with a little booklet of its own, so you don\u2019t have to have this book to be able to use the Resurrection Eggs.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3IbeO84\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Resurrection Eggs<\/a> by Family Life Today. \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605 These are so much fun! The kit comes with a story booklet (English and Spanish) that tells you what to read for each egg, a carton of twelve colorful plastic eggs, and inside each egg is a tiny figurine representing a part of the resurrection story. We used these in two way. I used them for an Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday in our Sunday School classroom which the kids LOVED. And I have also used these with E for a fun Easter count down. Both ways were a blast. (You can also DIY your own Resurrection Eggs\u2026.just google it\u2026tons of info will come up.) This is just a really fun way for kiddos to touch and feel and make more personal some things that would have been part of the Resurrection story.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3q6nyWX\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Aman\u2019s Adventure<\/em><\/a> by Arnold Ytreeide. \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605 This is a very exciting historical fiction book that takes place during the time of Jesus and culminates with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. We loved the story for the enjoyment of the story. For us personally, it\u2019s not family devotion material. (Think Ben-Hur or The Robe.) Having said that, there are questions and Bible verses (non-KJV) to discuss at the end of each chapter that we completely skipped over\u2026 because, like I said, we were here for the enjoyment of the story. Our theological explanations of Easter are coming straight from the actual resurrection story not from historical fiction. So just know, if you grab this book for an enjoyable historical fiction, you won\u2019t be disappointed (5-stars for that), but if you grab this for a study of the resurrection, you probably won\u2019t be satisfied. All that to say we LOVED the book\u2026for the story, not for studying the resurrection. I hope all that gibberish makes sense! *This author has a tendency to include heart-pumping, over-the-top, intense scenes that will keep your middle graders on the edge of their seats, but it may not be so good for your younger children.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3qbVwJE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>The Garden the Curtain and the Cross<\/em><\/a> by Carl Laferton. Here is a bonus book for you. I have had so many people tell me good things about this one, but we have not had the chance to try this one ourselves other than on YouTube. If you grab it, let me know what you think! *A note from our YouTube viewing\u2026not surprisingly, Adam and Eve are naked in the garden. And also, there is not a good explanation of salvation at the end of the book either\u2026nothing about repentance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">You can find all of these resources on <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/34NNTSf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Altogether Lovely\u2019s Amazon Storefront<\/a>. While you are there, be sure to check out the other great recommendations as well.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of the links here are Amazon affiliate links. If used to make a purchase, I will receive a small commission from Amazon at no extra cost to you! So THANK YOU!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">With Easter being just a month away, many of you are beginning to look for books and resources to prepare little hearts for celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. Whether you\u2019re looking for a light enjoyable read or something a little more theological, I think you\u2019ll find some good options here from a list of our favorites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81,152,151,139,136],"tags":[244,245,7,12,222,86,119,243,120,140,13,246,131,132,133,33,216,124],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-children","category-favorites","category-holiday","category-resources","tag-bible-story","tag-bible-story-books","tag-book-recommendations","tag-books","tag-books-for-kids","tag-childrens-books","tag-easter","tag-easter-books","tag-easter-recommendations","tag-easter-resources","tag-favorite-books","tag-historical-fiction","tag-holiday","tag-holiday-books","tag-holiday-recommendations","tag-recommendations","tag-wholesome-books","tag-wholesome-resources"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/EasterResourcesBlog.jpg?fit=500%2C748&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":599,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithfulandflourishing.org\/staging\/9315\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}