The First Easter Ever Illustrations by Dennis Jones

"The angel moved the huge stone away from the entrance.  Jesus was gone.  He had risen from the dead. The angel sat and waited.  He knew some of Jesus’ friends were on their way to the tomb.  He wanted to tell them the good news of Jesus’ resurrection."



The First Easter Ever is an abbreviated version of the story of Jesus' life starting with his years of ministry and ending with His ascension into Heaven.  The story is told in language that is engaging and that children can understand.

The illustrations are fantastic and are the primary reason why I chose this particular book.  They tell a story and are full of action. I even enjoy looking at them as an adult. The drawing of the angel sitting on the stone that has been rolled away was great!

This is a beautiful book to read to your children at Easter.  It seemed to be accurate majoring on God's love for humanity, and detailing the account of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.  It even includes the 40 days that Jesus spent with his disciples after God raised Him from the dead.

The only thing I felt was missing was that a large portion of Jesus' ministry, healing and miracles, was not included in the book.  That was a little disappointing for me.  It focused on sharing about Jesus as teacher, raising disciples, and being fishers of men, which is very awesome.  I would just liked to have seen some of the works of Jesus since that is how He demonstrated God's love for many.

One other thing to note is that when Jesus is baptized with the Holy Spirit, the book says "God appeared in the shape of a dove," which is not really accurate. Matthew 3:16 says, "After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him."  The Bible says "like a dove," not "as a dove."  These are two different things.  The phrase "like a dove" is actually a metaphor to describe the gentle way the Spirit of God descended.

I would recommend this book to families, churches, or anybody else who works with small children and would like a new resource for this Easter.  This would be a great book to include in an Easter basked.  My children are enjoying it, and I hope you can too!

God bless you as you celebrate another year of His Resurrection!  Happy Easter!

 

Beth

To read an excerpt, please go here.

 

Disclaimer:  I received this book free from Book Look Bloggers in exchange for a review. I was not required to give a favorable review.  The thoughts and opinions here are entirely my own.