Funny Bunnies: Cottontail Tales for Easter

What with sheltering in place and libraries and book stores close, it's not easy to hunt up new books about that Bunny who brings the Easter basket. Here are a few books about all things Easter-ish and some other seasonal stories that are eggs-actly what we need:

It's time for those bouncing bunnies, cheeping chicks, and dandy ducklings to make their annual appearance celebrating the return of spring. Here is a collection of hippity-hoppity stories that remind us that Easter is on its way!

Katherine Tegen's The Story of the Easter Bunny gives a nod to the folkloric roots of the Easter Rabbit, long a symbol of new life.

On a snow-cold day
in a snug little house,
a round old couple
were making Easter eggs...
while their little rabbit watched.

Little rabbit watches the couple blow and paint the eggs, make chocolate candies, and fill baskets for the children of the village. Gradually, as the couple grow older, the little rabbit, now grown big and strong, takes over the job. He becomes so famed in his village that he has to move his operations to a secret egg shop beneath a hollow tree and becomes Easter Rabbit to the world.

A simple sweet story illustrated in soft pastel watercolors by Sally Ann Lambert, this one is just right for young children, who may be inspired to search for the entrance to that secret Easter egg workshop themselves.

Charlotte Zolotow's classic, The Bunny Who Found Easter has charmed generations of small children with its story of a bunny who looks for "other rabbits like himself for company." The wise owl suggests that there are always rabbits at Easter, but can't tell the bunny where Easter is. "It must be some place to the east," he offers.

The bunny searches through hot summer sun and rain storms and winter snows, where he snuggles inside a hollow tree "alone in a world without rabbits." At last spring leads him to a beautiful bunny with bright eyes and long ears just like his, in "a time when everything lovely began once again."

Nancy Tafuri's Caldecott story of a runaway eighth duckling is a bundle of spring fun. One of the eight ducklings steals out of the nest and is seen "hiding" while Mother Duck goes about inquiring of all the pond animals for him. Kids love spotting the independent duckling watching from behind trees, flowers, and clumps of grass while his mom looks for him. This one is just right for a handy little board book, but is available as well in paperback or hardcover editions. Also by Tafuri is her wonderful story which begins with a bunny, I Love You, Little One in which little animals ask for reassurance that their mothers will always love them. Their lyrical answers ("I love you as the wild rye loves you, gently swaying above you, giving you food and cover from harm.") and Tafuri's elegant, fullsome illustrations are as warm as the child's bedtime embrace which ends the story.

What would the Easter holiday be without a Max and Ruby story? Rosemary Wells has one for us in Max's Chocolate Chicken (Max and Ruby). Max has eyes only for the huge chocolate chicken, the prize for the Easter egg hunt, but Ruby sternly hands Max his basket and says in her best big sister voice, "No eggs, no chicken!" While Ruby fills her basket with eggs, Max sneaks the chocolate chicken from its birdbath perch and makes short work of the delicious tail feathers. But the Easter Bunny (who has been visibly spying on the whole business) replaces the chicken with a chocolate goose for both Ruby and Max to share.

For slightly older kids who are weary of bunny and eggs stories, the perfect anti-cute-critter antidote is The Dumb Bunnies' Easter. Sue Denim's and Dav Pilkey's evergreen spoof of all things festive begins as the Dumb Bunny family chooses an Easter tree, spray-paints fried eggs, stuffs a turkey (through the basketball goal), and waits for Santa's minivan pulled by eight cranky pilgrims. This delightfully goofy mish-mash of popular customs will have children rolling in the aisles. Even when the Dumb Bunnies' colored eggs splatter down the chimney, it's an EGGS-tra good time for all.

Easter Eggs-travganza!!

If Easter eggs are on the holiday calendar, it's time for an egg-cellent bunny tale.

Easter is on its way, and for those family members looking for healthy (or at least non-chokeable) treats for an Easter basket for the very youngest, there is a brand-new book, a wired-for-sound version of the evergreen hit from 1950!

Steve Nelson's Here Comes Peter Cottontail!
(Candy Cane Press, 2014) has more to offer than the average seasonal holiday kiddy book.  Within a super-sturdy brand-new board book edition, this one features quite charming and appropriately pastel pink and purple-hued illustrations by artist Jack Rollins.

Peter, an amiably bespectacled bunny, assembles a basket-barrow of spring bouquets, an Easter bonnet and orchid corsage for Mom, colored eggs and a chocolate bunny to boot, "that he's hiding everywhere!" for the children. Along with all the words to the familiar song, two lines per page, to read aloud, there is a large, easy-to-press blue button on the cover which plays a soft and pleasant run-through of the tune, with blissfully only one repetition per push, for sing-along or read-alone fun!

For more Easter basket treats for tots, add Tad Hill's best-selling board book, Duck & Goose, Here Comes the Easter Bunny!, Oliver Dunrea's Ollie's Easter Eggs board book (Gossie & Friends), Laura Numeroff's Happy Easter, Mouse! (If You Give...),  or some weebly-wobbly unbreakable Easter eggs, Playskool Weebles Spring Basket, Lamb and Chick. to brighten up that first Easter basket.

Easter Egg Hunt! The Easter Surprise (Sweet Pea and Friends) by John and Jennifer Churchman

Sweet Pea the sheep had promised Fern a surprise today.

Fern the Bunny is curious. She heads for the barn, but on the way she hears two squirrels chattering. What is going on?

"I didn't put it there, did you?" one squirrel says.

Fern sees it, a beautiful painted egg. But it doesn't have stripes or polka dots. It has a lovely little miniature painting of Mo the Kitten right in the middle. Fern hurries to show it to Mo. But Mo has something to show, too!

"Look what I found! " Mo says.

He has found an egg painted with a picture of Keeper, the goose. It's a mystery, and Fern and Mo are on the case!

One thing leads to another! Following the trail, they find that Keeper has found an egg that leads them to Maisie the sheepdog and then to Little Finn the lamb who has an egg with a painting of the rooster on it. Another clue! They dash to the chicken house. The detectives soon have a basket full of beautiful eggs, but the chickens say they know nothing. Who could have left them?

John and Jennifer Churchman's latest in their series about the animals on their Vermont far, The Easter Surprise (Sweet Pea & Friends) (Little, Brown and Company, 2019) lets youngsters join in the fun of an idyllic old fashioned egg hunt, with tall grasses and clumps of wild flowers concealing the not-too-well hidden eggs, real eggs colored by someone who is happy to watch the youngsters find the eggs one by one. John and Jennifer Churchman provide the soft watercolor illustrations combined with photos of their own farm animals in a lovely story of an old-fashioned Easter egg hunt which will encourage sharp-eyed youngsters to help with the search.

John and Jennifer Churchman's popular series began with The SheepOver (Sweet Pea & Friends) (see reviews here).

Slow Going: The Great Easter Race (Sesame Street Scribbles) by Craig Manning

IT'S A BRIGHT EASTER MORNING ON SESAME STREET,
AND OUT IN THE PARK, FRIENDS ARE STARTING TO MEET.

"RACE!" CRIED BIG BIRD. "COME ONE AND COME ALL!
THE YOUNG AND AND THE OLD. THE SHORT AND THE TALL!"

All the Sesame Street gang are there, warming up for the Easter Race and stretching their legs . They're not running for the roses! They're running for the EGGS!

There are other entrants for the big race, too--a leggy, over-confident rabbit and a very slow but steady turtle.

(SPOILER ALERT! You may already know who's going to win this race!)

Turtle trudges off, muttering his mantra ("Slow and steady wins the race....") while Rabbit streaks away, out of sight, losing all the other runners in his dust. But this Bunny is easily distracted by the new spring things along the race route. Cookie Monster is positioned under a tree with a basket of cookies, and they're all free! Bunny munches awhile and, seeing Turtle toddling along in the distance, zips off again. But what's this! There's Ernie, with a dozen cutesy ducklings! Runner Bunny just has to stop and play with them.

It seems that fabulous running rabbit is having a bit of trouble staying on task. But there's Turtle, tootling along, still behind, but closing, so Bunny blasts off again. But it's not long before he slides to a sudden stop. What does he see up in that little tree? Peeping birdies in a nest? He just has to take a peep, too. And then, while he's under that tree with the nest....

WHY NOT HAVE A REST?

By this time it's clear where this one is going, in Craig Manning's breezy retelling of Aesop's ancient fable of The Tortoise and the Hare replayed with Easter trimmings and the Sesame Street regulars, The Great Easter Race! (Sesame Street Scribbles) (Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky, 2017). It's three for the price of one, with artist Ernie Kwiat's jolly pastel illustrations of the Sesame gang, costumed for Easter, as they act out one of the oldest tales in human literature and join in discovering the surprises spring brings, while, for young Eastertide celebrants the Easter Bunny makes a surprise cameo appearance with some colorful treats for all.

And for those who like their Easter-related fables with gears and wheels, pair this one with Kristen Larsen's Mater and the Easter Buggy (Disney/Pixar Cars) (Read review here).

ROYGBIV! Peppa Pig and the Easter Rainbow by Neville Astley

Peppa and George are going on an Easter egg hunt.

Peppa is psyched. She wants to find eggs in every color, so she and little brother George set off on the hunt, Peppa with a basket and George with a net!

Whoever hid all the eggs meant for them to be found. In no time Peppa has almost met her goal when the two of them arrive at a field with tall, tall grass. How will they spot Easter eggs in there?

But not to worry!

"Here comes Grandpa Pig!

His big mower will cut that grass fast!" Back and forth he goes.

The two rush into the now beautifully mowed field. Just as Peppa makes her quota of colors, a brief rain shower interrupts their fun. But there's a bright side to that...

"Do you know what happens when it's sunny and rainy at the same time?" asks Mother Pig.

"I know!" said Peppa. "You get a RAINBOW!"

And then Peppa notices that she has a rainbow of Easter Eggs...

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet!

Perfect! And now for that TREASURE at the end of the rainbow....

And what better way to learn the order of the colors of the rainbow than a jolly Easter egg hunt, in Peppa Pig and the Easter Rainbow (Candlewick Press, 2017). Neville Astley's popular preschool TV star Peppa Pig is always teaching George and all the youngsters who get to share her stories, and this one cleverly combines a lesson on colors and weather phenomena with Easter egg hunting. Share this one with Peppa's Easter Egg Hunt (Peppa Pig) for a perfect pair, eggs-zactly right for kids who can't wait to find those Easter eggs wherever they may be.

Easter Eggs for Everyone: Happy Easter, Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen

Everyone's favorite petulant piscatorial protagonist is back, in, of all things, an under-the-sea Easter egg adventure.

Octopus passes out the Easter pastel baskets, and all the itty-bitty fishies fan out to search the ocean reef for hidden eggs, led by quite a sight--a fish in a bunny costume!

Watch Out! That puffer fish is NOT an egg!

Will everyone find an egg? Or will poor Pout-Pout Fish go home with an empty basket?

In Deborah Diesen's little holiday board book, Happy Easter, Pout-Pout Fish (A Pout-Pout Fish Mini Adventure), (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017) even her sometimes sulky scaly hero replaces his morose moue with a big smile. The jolly illustrations of artist Dan Hanna show young collectors how it's done--and with Easter egg hunts the event of the day, even tots who dote on Pout-Pout Fish and find this one in their Easter baskets will know just what to do.

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!

All Aboard! Bunny Bus by Ammi-Joan Paquette

How do you get to the Easter Parade?

"HURRY! DON'T BE LATE!"

The Bunny Bus is at the gate!

Little critters, brothers and sisters, scurry to squeeze aboard. This bus has big ears, a cottony tail, and a smile with big chompers. What could it be but the Bunny Bus.

But as more and more boarders climb on, things become a bit tight inside. The little riders get worried.

"WE NEED MORE ROOM!"

BOOM!

It's a small explosion! Eggs, carrots, fox kits, bunnies, and kitty cats all tumble out! The Bunny Bus is out of commission!

But not to worry, after all--all the bus needs is a quick overhaul, and they're on their way and ready for the parade in a critter cavalcade, in Ammi-Joan Paquette's Bunny Bus (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017.) In the style of Richard Scarry's cute pastel critter pal stories, artist Lesley Breen Withrow's illustrations show the little celebrants arriving for the Easter Parade right on time.

Eggs-traordinary Llama: Llama Llama Easter Egg by Anna Dewdney

Llama Easter, Llama Spring.

What does Easter morning bring?

A bird watches from the window sill, where Llama Llama finds a pastel-striped Easter pail with a chocolate bunny and some bright jelly beans inside. But what's missing are the colored Easter Eggs.

So Mama Llama and Little Llama head off to the Easter Egg hunt with all his preschool pals--Nellie Gnu, Gilroy Goat, and the rest, all finding the hidden eggs in clumps of the tall spring grass.

But Llama Llama wanders off from the rest to look for his eggs, and inside a bush he sees something quite different from what the other kids are adding to their Easter baskets.

In the bush Little Llama spots a nest with four little blue robin's eggs inside. And hearing a quick crack, he looks closer. He watches another crack lengthen, and then a baby robin begin to emerge from the blue egg. It's not the usual colored Easter eggs he discovers; it's something else....

A Big Surprise!

Anna Dewdney's Llama Llama Easter Egg (Viking Press, 2016) offers an unexpected Easter event as he watches a baby robin be born. Mama Llama and her Little Llama have a very unique spring experience together, and this lovely little board book makes great seasonal reading and a very nice addition to a toddler's Easter basket.