KIDS BOOKS: Poetry for Easter

May this Holy Week, these days of walking with Jesus and seeing how he set his face toward his death on cross and “did not despise its shame,” find you meditating on Scripture and other good words — to enlarge your imagination concerning God’s love found in Jesus Christ and to unite your heart to praise his name.

Here are a few poems you and the children in your life can share together, as you enter in the story of the Cross.

Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe | CS Lewis 

“Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”

April | John Updike

April
It's Spring! Farewell
To chills and colds!
The blushing, girlish
World unfolds

Each flower, leaf,
And blade of turf--
Small love-notes sent
From air to earth.

The sky's a hard
Of prancing sheep,
The birds and fields
Abandon sleep,

And jonquils, tulips,
Daffodils
Bloom bright upon
The wide-eyed hills.

All things renew.
All things begin.
At church, they bring
The lilies in.

Royalty | Luci Shaw

He was a plain man
and learned no latin.

Having left all gold behind
he dealt out peace
to all us wild men
and the weather

He ate fish, bread,
country wine and God’s will

Dust sandalled his feet

He wore purple only once
and that was an irony

Quiet | Leslie Bustard 

…like a robin’s egg in a nest,

a row of yellow tulips, petals closed,

the last few shadowed moments

on the eastern horizon,

and Holy Saturday, 

as Christ was lying in the sealed tomb,

and the angels were waiting. 

The Lion, the Witch, the Wardrobe | CS Lewis 

The rising of the sun had made everything look so different – all the colours and shadows were changed – that for a moment they didn’t see the important thing.  Then they did.  The Stone Table was broken into two pieces by a great crack that ran down it from end to end; and there was no Aslan.

“Oh, oh, oh!” cried the two girls rushing back to the Table.

“Oh, it’s too bad,” sobbed Lucy; “they might have left the body alone.”

“Whose done it?” cried Susan.  “What does it mean? Is it more magic?”

“Yes!” said a great voice behind their backs.  “It is more magic.”  They looked round.  There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.

Emmaus 2 | Malcolm Guite

We thought that everything was lost and gone,

Disaster on disaster overtook us

The night we left our Jesus all alone

And we were scattered, and our faith forsook us.

But oh that foul Friday proved far worse,

For we had hoped that he had been the one,

Till crucifixion proved he was a curse,

And on the cross our hopes were all undone.

Oh foolish foolish heart why do you grieve?

Here is good news and comfort to your soul:

Open your mind to scripture and believe

He bore the curse for you to make you whole

The living God was numbered with the dead

That He might bring you Life in broken bread.

from The Jesus Storybook Bible | Sally Lloyd-Jones

And the King says, “Look!”

God and his children are together again.

No more running away. Or hiding.

Nor more crying or being lonely or afraid.

Nor more being sick or dying.

Because all these things are gone.

Yes, they’re gone forever.

Everything sad has come untrue.

And see — I have wiped away every tear from every eye!”

And then a deep, beautiful voice that sounded like thunder

In the sky says, “Look, I am making everything new!”  
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This post was written by Leslie Bustard, one of the co-editors of Wild Things and Castles in the Sky.

KIDS BOOKS: Easter Stories for Your Imagination

The other day someone on Facebook asked, “Which book would you like to reread for the first time?”

I didn’t check the other answers so I could come up with my own idea.

After a quick moment I knew I would want to relive many of those magical first moments in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S— like being with Lucy when she has tea with Mr. Tumnus, with the Peter, Susan, and Lucy when they come before the magnificent Aslan, and with Edmund as he trudges through the melting snow while spring musically makes its way into Narnia.  Rowen Wlliams in The Lion’s World: A Journey into the Heart of Narnia says Lewis was seeking to re-enchant us with the glories of the gospel. The Chronicles of Narnia are Great Supposal stories. Suppose there was another world, and Jesus acted in that world, what would it be like? And seeing Jesus and how he acts (Aslan) we might see him as if for the first time and our dullness to the Scriptures may be replaced with awe and gratefulness. I have experienced this. (spoiler) Reliving the death and then the resurrection of Aslan chokes me up often. I don’t remember how I felt when I first read it when I was 12, so I imagine rereading these scenes for the first time and experiencing the joy of Aslan, Susan, and Lucy romping around the broken Stone Table might enchant me even more to the glory of Christ’s resurrection. 

Epic stories like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter capture, like The Chronicles of Narnia, the sacrificial love of Jesus without actually be allegorical. Rereading these or even excerpts from them would be a way to assist the imaginations of our young people as we invite them into the true miracle of the gospel story.  The following are several more stories that can be read during Passion Week and can help us enter into the amazingness of this time of the year and church calenar.

1.     Bare Tree and Little Wind: A Story for Holy Week by Mitali Perkins and illustrated by Khoa Le. “A lyrical, captivating retelling of the Palm Sunday and Easter story…” I love how my imagination gets caught up in the Holy Land through the characters of a tree and wind. Through these characters I witness what happens to Jesus and then I’m given the hope of his return that will restore the whole earth – people and nature.  Mitali Perkins is a wonderful storyteller and the pictures by Khao Le are colorful and captivating. 

2.     Oscar Wilde Stories for Children by Oscar Wilde, illustrated by P.J. Lynch

“The Selfish Giant” and “The Nightingale and the Rose” are short stories which beautifully and achingly point us to Jesus and his sacrifice. P. J. Lynch’s illustrations in other books have been a favorite of mine for a longtime; these are a great addition to enjoying these stories. 

3.     “Maundy Thursday” by Walter Wangerin

I found this story in Stories for the Christian Year by The Chrysostom Society, but you can also find in online through Christianity Today. 

I read this story every Maundy Thursday to my family and anyone will listen. This story helps us remember how Jesus broke the bread and shared the wine with his disciples before he was arrested and then died. It is funny and endearing; it chokes me up every time I read the end.  

4.     The Light Princess by George MacDonald and illustrated by Ned Bustard

This novella, with all the trappings of a traditional fairy tale told with a nod and a wink and clever word play offers insight into what true sacrifice looks like. (Also, the illustrations are perfect, created by my husband Ned. He fills each picture with lots of fun things to look at . . . yes, I might be slightly biased).

5.     The Biggest Story Bible Storybook written by Kevin DeYoung and illustrated by Don Clark. 

When my daughters were younger, and if I remembered (!), I would read all the Bible stories starting with Palm Sunday and ending with Christ’s death. Then on Easter and a few days after we would read the rest of the glorious story. (Each day we would focus on the stories that happened on that day.) Reading straight from the Bible is always a very, very good idea; supplementing with a storybook Bible is good, too, especially if the illustrations can capture your imagination without replacing any images in one’s mind already. This new one published by Crossway has colorful and dramatic illustrations by Don Clark, are modern-vintage; they are clear enough to give you an idea of what is going on, but because they are so stylized you don’t think it is actually how everything looked.  
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This post was written by Leslie Bustard, one of the co-editors of Wild Things and Castles in the Sky.

KIDS BOOKS: Easter Books for Toddlers

When last year’s leaves have turned to mould in the flower beds and the vines of the clematis are black and brittle, that first glimpse of a golden crocus feels like a promise. Spring is coming! When my daughters were younger they’d wonder at each new spring flower, and I was never sure how well they remembered seeing the same flowers the previous year. Now, they are old enough to know: when we’re out walking, we’ll interrupt each other to cry, “Crocus!” and clap and maybe make fools of ourselves. And then we’ll go back to talking about middle school math, or a book they just finished. We delight in the changing season together, but we both know it happened last year and that it will (most likely) happen again next spring.

But when they were little: ah! Those crocuses were a burst of color where a second before everything had looked brown and sodden. The spring was brand new to them, and they marveled at each crocus (and then, at a certain age, most likely tried to eat it). The Easter story, nestled neatly into spring as it is, was new to them too. And over the years we found that the best Easter books for toddlers told the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection with color, promise, and joy. They gave our daughters something to wonder at, delight in, and remember. These Easter books for young readers became some of our very favorites.

Easter is Coming, by Tama Fortner

This lovely, large-format board book tells the littlest readers the story of Easter from Genesis onward. The illustrations in this one are particularly lovely.

The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross, by Carl Laferton

This one, too, tells the whole story of Easter, from the garden of Eden to Jesus' return. But it's not as long as you'd think such a telling would be—better yet, it's now available as a board book! And while it’s not technically an Easter book, it does offer a companion Advent-style calendar for the two weeks leading up to Easter.

What is Easter?, by Michelle Medlock Adams

This sweet rhymed board book tells readers not just what happened on Easter but why we celebrate it the way we do. Where does the bunny come in? What's up with the new dresses? What is Easter? answers all those burning questions and more.

Holy Week, by Danielle Hitchen

This board book primer takes readers through the events of Holy Week, supporting each page with Scripture and emphasizing the different emotions Jesus and the disciples may have felt as the week went on. 

A Very Happy Easter, by Tim Thornborough

This one also focuses on emotions as it tells the Easter story (those toddlers and their emotions!), but it tells the story differently, in an interactive and delightful way.

Jesus Rose for Me, by Jared Kennedy

This exuberant telling of the Easter story looks forward, beyond Jesus' death and resurrection to this moment, today, and helps readers understand why Jesus died—and why his resurrection still matters so much to us. This is one of my favorites.
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This post was written by Théa Rosenburg, one of the co-editors of Wild Things and Castles in the Sky.