Books to Enrich Your Eastertide

The Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale

Retold by Angela Elwell Hunt

This folktale retelling tops my list of Easter books, though in fact it isn’t exclusive to Eastertide. It tells the story of three ambitious trees, each of whom has lofty worldly goals: to hold great treasure, to sail the seas and carry mighty kings, and to point to God as the tallest tree in the world. These ambitions initially seem to be crushed, but in the end are fulfilled on the most supernatural plane. Without being at all didactic, Hunt here shows the reader how God takes our noble desires and, despite and even through suffering, fulfills them in ways we could never imagine. This one brings me regularly to tears!

Petook: The Rooster Who Met Jesus

By Caryll Houselander, Illustrated by Tomie dePaola

Tomie dePaola writes in the introduction to this book that when encouraged to realize the dream of illustrating one of Caryll Houselander’s books for children, he “chose Petook because of its Easter message of birth, rebirth, and resurrection.”  Certainly, this story brings to life many of these themes, and portrays the egg as truly symbolic of Easter (rather than merely a conduit for candy!). Petook the rooster and his wife Martha encounter Jesus as a child, and later witness from afar to his death and Resurrection. Their joy at the Resurrection on Easter is doubled by the joy of new life: the birth of a baby chick.