I’ve just reviewed a stunningly good Joy Cowley book for the Kiwi Families website:

As Easter approaches, and shops are already full of hot cross buns and chocolate eggs, I know plenty of families would like to bring some balance. Exploring the original story of Easter isn’t just for Christian households, either. If you’d like any kids in your life to understand why this secular nation has a long weekend in autumn, why the Easter story made such an impact on human culture that even we today celebrate in ways almost recognisable to our ancestors, then Joy Cowley’s book is the one for the job.

[Read more at Kiwi Families]

Here are a couple of excerpts from The Easter Story (and there are more in the full review):

But it isn’t always easy to be loving.
Life gets difficult, and we can be unkind,
especially when people are unkind to us.
Sometimes the God spark in us
gets hidden by a sea of troubles.

I think God said something like this:
My children need to learn
to live in loving kindness
on the planet I have made for them.
They need to overcome problems
in order to grow strong.
I will go to earth and join them,
to show them the way.

My favourite line in the book comes near the end, where Cowley is telling us about talking to Jesus now. I cried when I first read it!

We can tell him about our mistakes.
He knows that people who don’t make mistakes,
don’t make anything, and he tells us to keep trying.

Head over to Kiwi Families for the full review, including a discussion of what I reckon is most important in kids’ Bible stories. There or here, it’d be great to hear your recommendations for Easter stories, too.