No Nest for the Weary: Bunny's Easter Egg by Anne Mortimer

IT WAS EARLY EASTER MORNING. BUNNY WAS TIRED.

ALL NIGHT SHE HAD BEEN HIDING EGGS FOR THE EASTER HUNT.

THERE WAS JUST ONE VERY PLAIN EGG LEFT TO HIDE.

But the little cottontail is just too pooped to place that last egg, so she jumps into her favorite basket and, yawning, curls up around the egg to catch a quick nap. But suddenly the quiet of the wee hours is broken by noisy sounds from inside the egg.

"OH, NO!" CRIED BUNNY. "I CAN'T SLEEP HERE. IT'S FAR TOO NOISY!"

And Bunny sets out on a search for a decent place to catch a few winks before the Easter festivities begin. But the quest is not easy. A hollow in an old tree is too close to cheeping, chirping young birds, eager to start the day. A wheelbarrow in an old garden shed looks promising, until she discovers she's sharing her sleeping spot with a hedgehog. Way too prickly! Bedding down with mice is far too squeaky, and a mole in his hole is way too pushy. Quacking ducklings and croaking frogs make plopping down by the pond impossible, and snoozing with a litter of playful, bouncy kittens in the greenhouse is way out of the question.

Finally it's back to the basket for Bunny. At least her favorite basket is now quiet, and the noisy plain egg is nowhere to be seen.

"MMMMMM," SHE MURMURED. "AT LAST. THIS IS PERFECT," THOUGHT BUNNY.

BUNNY DIDN'T SLEEP LONG. THE PLAIN EGG HAD HATCHED. AND BUNNY HAD A NEW FRIEND WHO WASN'T NOISY, OR PRICKLY, LUMPY, OR PESKY.

"HAPPY EASTER, BUNNY!"

In place of that plain egg it's a fluffy, yellow duckling waiting to share Easter morning with Bunny, and together the baby duck and the sleepy Bunny get ready to watch the morning Easter egg hunt together.

Anne Mortimer's stunningly realistic, textured artwork seems to show every soft hair in Bunny's fur and every petal in the spring blooms, and it is these wonderfully warm illustrations which bump her Bunny's Easter Egg (HarperCollins, 2010) ahead of the usual Easter Bunny tale. As an added bonus, Mortimer hides thirteen colorfully decorated eggs among her sumptuous illustrations all through the book to give young readers a chance for their very own early Easter egg hunt.

Laying a Trail: Happy Easter, Mouse by Laura Numeroff

The night before Easter, Mouse decorates some eggs.

When he wakes up on Easter morning, he finds a yellow egg under the covers.

And the hunt is on. Mouse finds red eggs on the kitchen counter, hiding behind a gallon jug of milk and peeping out between two cannisters. The fridge door is suspiciously ajar. Some mischief is "afoot" here.

In short order Mouse detects blue eggs under the rocking chair where a boy is snoozing and orange eggs decoratively tucked among the sofa cushions.

Who balanced all those purple eggs on the table?

Who would hide green eggs in plain view on the counter? Who indeed would do such a deed?

Little ones sharing this cheery little board book will already know the answer to that one. In each double-page spread they will catch just a glimpse of a jaunty bunny ear or two, a fluffy tail exiting page right, or a front paw with a colored egg to be "hidden" on the next page. Of course it's the Easter Bunny on his annual visit, and Mouse is just jumping with his usual joie de vivre to catch the fuzz-tailed funster in the act in Laura Numeroff's latest holiday board book adventure, Happy Easter, Mouse! (If You Give...) (Balzer & Bray, 2010). Illustrated in bright spring eye-candy colors, with Felicia Bond's inimitable Mouse in his little denim overalls jiving through the pages, this one is as much fun as a basket of jellybeans! Listening tots, too, will be inspired to start coloring, hiding, or hunting their own eggs right away!

A great Easter basket stuffer which says "Happy Easter, Mouse!" and Happy Easter, everyone!