The Easter Story for Children
The Easter story is notoriously difficult to speak to young children about. I spend a lot of time shielding my children from many things on the news and other nasty things. My thinking behind this is that they will have to face the horridness of the world soon enough.
Obviously living on a farm, Boo has experienced death but natural death is quite a bit different from the horrors of crucifixion.
I remember the Jesus of Nazareth television series starring Robert Powell. I must have been about seven when it was on one Easter and I remember being so upset about it.
Thankfully, there are books out there which tell the Easter story to children without scarring them for life.
We were sent the Easter Story which is retold by Sophie Piper, illustrated by Annabel Spenceley and published by Lion Children’s books.
The story begins with Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. It doesn’t dumb down the story at all as, while I wouldn’t want graphic images of death, the Easter story is essentially about death and resurrection so to omit such facts would not be the true spirit of Easter.
There are children in the images which I think always helps.
The Disciples are described as friends which I really like and Judas is described as cruel-all terms that school-aged children may probably be familiar with already.
The Crucifixion itself is one sentence on one page which I think is just right. The illustration focuses on how sad hi friends are which is something young children can understand.
The rest of the story covers the Resurrection.
Despite the gory death that Jesus suffered, the Easter story is more to do with the Good News of the Resurrection and eternal life with God.
Increasingly, Easter is becoming a bit like Christmas-a Christian celebration being overshadowed by fluffy rabbits and chocolate eggs.
Why not give your child a book explaining the real reason for Easter as well as an egg this year?
The Easter Story costs £3.99 and is available from the Lion Children’s website.
We were sent this book as part of our Little Lions Ambassadorship. All opinions are my own.
This is exactly what I’ve been looking for – it’s easy to find children’s nativity stories but actually, the Easter story is more important to us. The illustrations look great. I’ll be getting a copy!