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Jackie Morris lives in Pembrokeshire, Wales, with children, dogs and cats. Her latest book is the retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Wild Swans.

A plethora of picture books about Christmas are published each year. Some are froth and bubble, as unsatisfying as cheap tinsel. Others are excellent, and should be shared with children and families in the lead-up to Christmas Day or join the collections of  avid Christmas book collectors. Some standouts for 2014 that are already available […]

Ruth Paul is an award-winning author and illustrator of ten picture books, including Hedgehog’s Magic Tricks. She works from a small straw-bale studio in the middle of a pasture just outside Wellington, New Zealand.

The Easter Story

By Brian Wildsmith

Holidays and holy days such as Christmas and Easter, present a constant conundrum for many young parents as they struggle to find a balance between the sacred and the secular in both celebrations that are huge in the yearly calendar of family-centered events.

With this in mind, here at The Snuggery, I try to find picture books for young families that, as each of these celebrations approaches, honor the secular, without sidestepping the religious aspects of both Easter and Christmas.

So, with that in mind, Brian Wildsmith’s The Easter Story, is a visually stunning and vibrant telling of the Easter Triduum, referring to the three day journey of Christians revisiting three of the holiest days in their calendar; Holy Thursday’s Last Supper, Good Friday’s Crucifixion and Holy Saturday’s, Laying in the Tomb, all culminating in the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.

Wildsmith begins the picture book with the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem marked with the singing and swaying of hand-held palms by the welcoming crowds on Palm Sunday.

It relates in beautifully gold-toned paintings, one of the greatest seeming contradictions in religion: how a death on a cross can lead to redemption and eternal life. This book has a beautiful simplicity that will appeal to the youngest of picture book readers. And, it is a companion book to Wildsmith’s The Christmas Story that I have not read, but having seen The Easter Story, I will certainly read.

What makes this book accessible and appealing to young readers is a central figure in the story is a small donkey that carries Jesus into the city of Jerusalem. He is a witness to each and all of the events that follow. And at the end of the remarkable journey of both Jesus and the donkey, the friends of Jesus return the small animal to his home.  He is filled with memories of the events he was part of over the remarkable three days, even as the reader finds those events will continue to find echoes through the centuries that follow.

Stories of tragedy and triumph are part of the everyday in stories splashed across media outlets each day. They all seem to meld together in our minds, or at least they do for me.

With the celebrations of Easter and Passover, it is an opportunity, for those for whom those celebrations are meaningful to mark tragedy and triumph as they are enfolded in rituals that are centuries old, yet continue to be celebrated within many families today. Anything that outlives the passage of time, that, after all is the great leveler, must have meaning in a society in constant fast forward mode that forgets in the blink of an eye.

Brian Wildsmith has presented such an event with extraordinary art and a simple narrative that some have termed, “the greatest story ever told.”

For young picture book readers and their parents, this is a wonderful rendering of that story, all seen through the eyes of a simple animal! Happy Easter!

The moral of the story: modesty and perseverance will always be rewarded. Read more after the jump. Author and illustrator Brian Wildsmith gives us his personal take on an old classic, The Hare and the Tortoise. Inspired by the La Fontaine version, Wildsmith simply retells the fable about a race between a boastful hare who thinks [...]

The Snow Country Prince by Daisaku Ikeda (illus. by Brian Wildsmith and translated by Geraldine McCaughrean) is a story about two children, Mariko and Kazuo, who look after a wounded swan during the winter months when their fisherman father is away at sea.  Winter is a cold and lonely time for the children but the season also marks its entry with the arrival of the swans who come to shelter in the marshes by the sea.  However, this time the north wind is more severe than usual and creates ice on the edges of the sea making it difficult for the swans to forage.  After a visitation by the Snow Country Prince who is worried about his  feathered subjects,  the children are encouraged to feed and take care of the swans.  They are told, “Whatever happens, don’t give up.”

A wounded swan left by wolves is found on the shore line by the children who take it home to administer to its needs — never ‘giving up’ as the Snow Prince has told them.  In the meanwhile, the childrens’ father has an accident and is hospitalized; the mother must leave the Mariko and Kazuo to attend to their father.  The children, left alone, become determined more than ever to restore the swan to health.

The Snow Country Prince is beautifully illustrated by Brian Wildsmith in a colorful and captivating style.  It’s a book most suitable for reading aloud with a child in your lap in a warm and cozy place.   Ultimately a story about the virtues of kindness and determination encouraged by a figure of divine origin, The Snow Country Prince is also not a bad read for this time of year when such virtues of divine origin can be a cause for celebration.