The Country Bunny AND THE LITTLE GOLD SHOES By: Du Bose Heyward Pictures by: Marjorie Flack

Easter time is a great time to pull this book out and read with the little ones. It is a tale about Easter and the Easter Bunny. But for all those grownups reading this to your child you will see the tale as much more, and hopefully so will the child you are reading it to.

For anyone who doesn't know there are really five Easter Bunnies and not one. They are chosen because they are the wisest, kindest and swiftest bunnies in the whole world! Once there was a little girl Cottontail bunny from the country who more than anything wanted to be an Easter Bunny when she grew up. The other rabbits looked down and laughed at her for believing she could do such a thing. When Cottontail grew up she had twenty-one babies at one time! The other rabbits said  "Only a country rabbit would go and have all those babies. Now take care of them and leave Easter eggs to great big men bunnies like us." She gives up her dreams of delivering Easter eggs as an Easter Bunny and takes care of the children. One day she heard at the Palace of Easter Eggs Old Grandfather was going to pick out a new bunny to replace one that had become to slow to do the job. So she took her brood to the Palace to see the fun! Grandfather Bunny came to look upon the Cottontail with all of her children and asked her several questions about taking care of her children and after she rounded all of them up very quickly he soon found out that she was wise, kind, and swift! He chose her to be the fifth Easter Bunny! I don't know if you know this but an Easter Bunny can hop out of sight in one single jump and be back a moment later to deliver more eggs. That night Grandfather Bunny gives Cottontail the hardest job of all; to deliver the most beautiful Easter egg to a sick boy who had been brave all year.  After she attempts to deliver the egg she falls and hurts her leg.  Grandfather bunny shows up with a pair of golden shoes for being the bravest one of all. The shoes take the pain out of her leg and flies her to the little boys house in two of the biggest jumps. After delivering the egg to the boy she then takes her own basket full of eggs for her own children home and hangs her golden shoes up on the wall. 


When you read this book you can see the feminist in the Cottontail.  She really can have a family, and also follow her ambitions, her dreams.  It is quite inspiring to all the little girls out there to think that their big dreams can come true too!

MAX Counts His Chickens 1 2 3 By: Rosemary Wells

I am officially starting the countdown to Easter with this amusing tale of Max and his chicks.

Most of you are probably familiar with Max from the Max and Ruby books and series on Nick Jr.  Rosemary Wells is a great children's author and often uses bunnies as the main characters in her books.

In this book the Easter bunny hides ten hot-pink marshmallow chicks all over Max and Ruby's house.  When Max and Ruby wake up the hunt starts to find the chicks.  "Finders keepers!"  they both yell.  During their search only Ruby finds chicks, and Max does a great job of making a great big mess around the house searching for the chicks. Each place Ruby finds a chick the number is displayed largely on the page along with the amount of chicks that have been found all together. This is a great book to learn numbers and to practice counting!  We all laugh as Max tears apart the house looking and not finding any chicks.  Grandma comes into the kitchen after Ruby finds the tenth and last chick and finds Max empty handed. She immediately makes a phone call to the Easter bunny who promptly drops ten yellow marshmallow chicks through the mail slot. "Pop!"  Max tries to count them all and ends the tale with "All mine!"

I guarantee this one will please the kiddos!


To check out more of Wells books go to : http://rosemarywells.com/