I have reviewed quite a few different Easter books since starting this blog, and most of them approach the story of Christ’s death and resurrection from a fresh perspective: through the lens of history and tradition, perhaps, or by letting a typically peripheral character tell the story.
It wasn’t until I read through Fiona French’s book, Easter, that I realized that the one thing our library of Easter books lacked was a simple, straight-forward telling of the Easter story—no frills, no fresh perspective. Just the story itself.
French centers her book around text from the RSV, and the text informs her illustrations, which are “inspired by” (and I quote the dust jacket here) “the glorious English cathedral windows of Ely, Lincoln, York and Canterbury.” They are done in the style of stained glass windows, which lends a beautiful sobriety to the narrative of the events of Christ’s life between the Triumphal Entry and the Ascension.
As Protestants of the reformed stripe, we don’t have much experience with elaborate stained glass windows—not on a weekly basis, anyway—so I loved giving our girls the opportunity to explore them through the pages of Easter. Between the clean, direct text and the beautiful illustrations, I can already tell that this book will be a staple in our house from year to year.
Easter
Fiona French (2004)
Christina A says:
I can’t wait to read this one. We have Easter by Jan Pienkowski, which uses selections from the King James paired with silhouette illustrations. The first time I read it, I cried! (In the interest of full disclosure, I was pregnant at the time, but I still find it moving every time we read it.) A little disclaimer for sensitive people: there is a smallish silhouette of Judas hanging himself on one page.
March 13, 2015 — 12:14 pm
Théa says:
I read (and loved) his book, Christmas! Those silhouettes are stunning. I think our library has a copy of his Easter book, so I’ll have to track it down 🙂 Thanks for the recommendation!
March 13, 2015 — 1:33 pm
Théa says:
Found it, and you’re right: it’s beautiful! Watch this week’s post for a review 🙂 Thank you for the recommendation!
March 17, 2015 — 2:42 pm
Haley says:
Fun to read your take on this book! It’s such a good one.
I just realized that in my own review I said it used the KJV. Whoops! Going to fix that now…
March 14, 2015 — 1:12 pm
Théa says:
Thank you! It is such a good book 🙂 And so beautiful!
March 16, 2015 — 12:43 pm
Carolyn says:
This book looks beautiful! I’m so excited that my library has it, as well as several others by her! Thanks for the recommendation.
March 5, 2016 — 7:25 am
Thea Rosenburg says:
I’d love to hear about the others. I’ve been eyeing them on Amazon for a while 🙂
March 7, 2016 — 6:43 am