Here are 4 seasonal books that have been popular with children at story time:

An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston and Sylvia Long  Published by Chronicle Books c2009

This team has produced a series of beautiful nature picture books.   An Egg is Quiet presents all sorts of eggs from birds, reptiles, insects, fish, even fossilized dinosaur eggs.  A short text in large print can be read to very young children, while blocks of smaller text contain more information.  A collection of eggs covers a two-page spread at the beginning of the book, and  similar double-pages at the end of the book show us the mature form of each creature that has hatched from those eggs. Illustrations are clearly labeled and notes indicate whether the drawing is smaller or larger than actual size. An ostrich egg is shown next to a nest full of hummingbird eggs. The texture, shape and markings that help camouflage eggs are also shown in the lovely and detailed artwork by Sylvia Long.  This book is a wonderful tool for exploring the natural world with children.  Other titles in the series include: A Seed is Sleepy,  A Butterfly is Patient, A Rock is Lively,  and coming in April, A Nest is Noisy.  You must read them all.

 

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward   Published by Houghton Mifflin

If I don’t have this on hand during the Spring book fair, grandparents who remember and love this book will frown.  Important Easter Bunny Lore must be passed on to the next generation!  Readers of this book will learn that there are actually 5 Easter Bunnies, and that a small, brown, country-girl rabbit can compete with very fast Jack Rabbits and large White Rabbits from town.

When the Country Bunny’s 21 rabbit babies grow big enough to take on household chores, she feels it is time to appear at the Palace of Easter Eggs where the five kindest, swiftest and wisest bunnies in the whole world are selected to work for the Grandfather Bunny delivering Easter eggs.

Hundreds of books about Easter Bunnies have been published since this one first appeared in 1939, but few have such devoted followers.

 

The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown with illustrations by Leonard Weisgard.  Random House c1947

The large format (a BIG Little Golden Book) of this title makes it perfect for sharing with a group.  A baby bunny is curious about the sounds coming from an egg he finds, and performs various actions to try to speed along the hatching process. When the bunny tires and drops off to sleep,  the duck inside the egg hatches, finds the sleeping bunny and carries out the same actions until the bunny wakes up. When I read this to a group of preschool children,  they find the repeated actions hilarious and want to hear it again.  Try it and you’ll see!

Rechenka’s Eggs  written and illustrated  by Patricia Polacco       Published by Philomel Books, c1988

Old Babushka decorates eggs with intricate Ukrainian designs to sell at the Easter Festival in Moskva.  When an injured goose Babushka has rescued accidentally destroys the latest basket of eggs, an Easter miracle is needed.  All is fair in the universe when Patricia Polacco tells a story. Young listeners sigh with satisfaction when this one comes to a close.