Check out this list of books and devotionals that encourage us to love our kids more deeply and teach them about God’s truth for Easter.

The celebration of Jesus’ resurrection at Easter is just a few short weeks away and with it the opportunity to fill up your child’s Easter basket with stories that will remind them of God’s love! We’ve gathered below a list of some of our favorite Christian children’s books to encourage your child’s faith and growth this spring. What better way to prepare to celebrate the real joy of Easter with your kids? 

We didn’t forget about the parents, either! With family devotionals and books on loving your kids and having tough faith conversations, we have a list of our favorites for you, too!

Easter Books

If you are looking for Easter-specific books for your kids, look no further! For young kids, check out Snuggle Time Easter Stories, That Grand Easter Day!, and The Most Glorious Easter Morning. We can’t get over these sweet stories designed to help even your youngest child start to understand the wonder of the Easter story.

Sharing Easter stories with your family is a sweet tradition and here is a list of some excellent titles.

We excitedly awaited Grandma’s gray carton of colorful eggs every Easter. The tiny items inside, from the thorn to the rope, were visible reminders of Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection. I don’t quite remember if Grandma told the Easter story or if we all participated in the telling, but I know that to us cousins those eggs and their treasures were a huge part of our Easter traditions. And even though we knew what the eggs held, every year it was special to open up to the cracker, the stone, and the “empty tomb.”

While other Easter activities like the Sunrise Service and eating the breakfast casserole together are also sweet memories to me, Grandma’s eggs are my favorite Easter tradition. I made up my own carton of Resurrection Eggs years ago, and have used them in Sunday School classes as well as elementary school settings. I’m excited to share this tradition with our children, as we encourage them to ponder the events of Holy Week.

This year I was positively thrilled to discover Benjamin’s Box, a book meant to be read alongside Resurrection Eggs.  And while my new find is definitely a favorite on my list, the other Easter stories I’ve shared below are also great ones to enjoy at Easter time (as well as throughout the rest of the year!).

What a great way to celebrate Easter with your children–and ultimately your whole family–then with reading great stories full of His truth!?

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. The natural world is so full of resurrection and rebirth that it seems impossible to miss the real story despite the commercialization. Easter is a jubilant day for believers, a day of triumph over the absolute worst of everything that is in the world: sin, darkness, abandonment, and death. It’s even the reason that most of the Christian Church worships on the first day of the week.

But it wouldn’t be Easter without Good Friday. As a line from a favorite song says, “How can a day be a day without the night?” Perhaps a dozen years ago, I attended my first Tenebrae service. This traditional Good Friday service made a deep impression on my heart. I left the church feeling the weight of Jesus’ sacrifice, feeling actual grief over His death in a way I’d never understood before. When Easter dawned that Sunday, I had real joy in the resurrection.

Sometimes it’s hard for us, in our busy, comfortable lives, to really slow down and consider Jesus’ final days.

Have you ever tried to solve a mystery? I bet your kids 8 and older are intrigued by mysteries.

Some of the most fascinating detective stories are full of twists and turns that leave readers surprised and hungry for more. Did you know that God’s story in the Bible is actually a series of clues? It’s true! And the clues reveal one of the most mind-boggling mysteries of all time.

You see, with God nothing is random. Every detail is ordered with purpose. So His clues which lead us to uncover His mysterious plan aren’t haphazard or left behind accidentally. They are purposeful and perfectly orchestrated.

How can we be sure God is in control, though, when the details unfolding in our lives, in the world around us, in our children, don’t always feel good?

The Messiah who was born on Christmas Day then died and rose again on Easter Sunday is why we can know God cares … why we can believe God is true … and why we can hope in God today and forever.

Does your family know about this mysterious Messiah?

There are some moments we never fully understand until they pass us by.  Some moments, some conversations, are just too much to fully grasp in the present.  We respond the best we can and wring out the full understanding when we watch the mental replay.

Motherhood is especially ripe with these moments.  As intentional and proactive as we are, sometimes the inherent beauty of a 4-year-old who needs his mama, an 8-year-old choosing courage, a 13-year-old showing genuine empathy, is only understood in retrospect.  We hang on to those moments, savoring them, even as they are rolling out right before us.

Moments of Beauty

I have to imagine the women in Matthew chapter 28 found themselves smack in the midst of one of those moments.

A few days earlier they witnessed the unbearably brutal murder of their savior.  The weight of their loss was incredible.  Their grief fresh, raw, they sought to be near him, near his tomb, even in death.

But as the women approached the tomb there was an earthquake.  The guards “became like dead men” while an angel explained to the women that their Lord has risen.