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.

Do you have a middle school girl who loves horses and can’t get enough great horse stories? Here is a list of amazing horse stories to add to her list!

If you have a middle school girl in love with horses, you’ve probably already seen the whole Black Stallion series in her hands. Once a girl catches “horse fever,” she will do almost anything to get her hands on a horse–or books about them.

I know. I’ve been there. Bitten by the bug around age eight, I didn’t get my own until I was fourteen. I begged, borrowed, and weaseled my way into horse rides while devouring every horse book we owned and the ones the library had to offer.

Why should you encourage this in your own daughter? Let me tell you a secret which I never heard as a child.

Horses actually teach us to be better people.

The lessons cover subjects like how to fall and get up again, how to fail but keep trying until you succeed, how to control emotions even when nerves race out of control, how to work as a team with people and horses, and how to trust.

Looking for a character-building resource for your tweens? Here’s one of my favorites for encouraging, inspiring, and entertaining those tween-age kids!

What resources do you recommend for raising tweens? You know, those kids who are no longer “little” but not quite teenagers yet either.

I’m asked this question often.

Probably because I have a bunch of kids (8 is technically considered a “bunch,” right?), and so we’ve done this tween-thing a time or two.

But also because it’s such an important age – those “in-between” years are so critical – and what can we do for them?

I get it.

Which is why I’m sharing with you a couple of my favorite resources for encouraging, inspiring, and, yes, even entertaining those wonderful tween-age kids.

Ready? Da-ta-ta-da!! (I’m guessing I just embarrassed our older teenagers).

We love Jonathan Park and The Adventum  Audio Adventures!

Our older children listened to these engaging stories for hours. And I mean, hours.

And so those kids grew up, and then the younger set began enjoying them every bit as much as their older siblings.

What books can you offer to help your teens find meaning when the storms of life come pounding down on them? What titles can guide them on how to face trials and challenges, how to grow in their faith, and how to find God in the darkness of this world? 

I was ten years old when I overheard a conversation between my mother and my older brother that changed my life forever.

They were discussing a book he had just read. While talking about what happened, they expounded on the theological meanings of different things that appeared in the book.

One thing became very clear to me.

I had to read this book myself. 

I rode my bike down to the small local library and found it in the historical fiction section. It was heavy in my hands with a plain hardback cover and two words emblazoned across the front of it:

The Robe.

The librarian took one glance at it and refused to let me check it out. “It’s not a children’s book, and you’ll never finish it on time.” 

“I’ll ask my parents before I start,” I replied.

Is your teen girl into that old-fashioned fiction that she can’t get enough of? How about some amazing, vintage feel books that she’ll want to read over and over again?

There are at least three ways I know that my teen daughter loves a book:

1. She reads the same book over and over again—when she just read it.
2. She decides she wants to order the book so she can have her own copy.
3. She tells me, “Mom, you have got to read this book!”

My oldest daughter reads voraciously, rather like I did at her age. We don’t read all the same genres—she loves fantasy like Lord of the Rings and The Wingfeather Saga, while I tend more towards modern or historical fiction—so it’s extra fun when we find books we both love.

Sometimes, I’ll pre-read a title before handing it to her. Other times, since she reads quickly (and has more time!), my daughter is the one raving to me about a new book (usually a book or author that’s been recommended to us from a trusted source).

I’ll never forget the first time I saw her.

Her red mane shone in the sun as I stood in the middle of a corral. To this young teenager, I knew one thing as absolute fact. This horse and I were created for each other. My friends running a ranch helped me overcome my biggest obstacle of convincing my dad to let me buy her. I spent over thirteen years with my horse, my best friend.

In Genesis 1:26, God gave us dominion over the animals. Ever notice how God leads by example? Jesus didn’t just tell us to love each other. He put it into action on the cross when He defeated our sin. When it comes to ruling the animals, we should use love and grace, just as He does.

Perhaps the love we feel for animals is a small reflection of how He loves us. The bond with animals exists to remind us of how much He loves us. And the happiness I felt when my horse trotted to greet me with a welcoming snort, is just a small example of the joy God has when we run to Him.

If you have a child who can’t get enough good books to read, this is a Big Long List of Good Books for Children just for you!

She said that’s how she’ll always remember me.

That the picture of me as a young girl will be forever imprinted on her mind.

She was an old family friend and has known me since I was in second grade. In other words, for a very long time.

“What,” I asked her. “What memory would that be?”

Rather curious to hear her answer.

I remember you with a duster in one hand and a book in your other, while you slowly  – every-so-slowly – worked through your chores. Dusting and reading. But mostly reading. 

I could picture it too. Almost as if it was another young child and not really me at all.

I don’t have any memory of that. I mean, how you can remember something if you were too busy living it?

Because that’s how it was with me and books.

They were like old friends and new worlds and distant times.

Are you looking for a wonderful series of books for teen girls? Or maybe for yourself? Here are some recommended all-time favorites for you to try!

There’s nothing sadder for a bibliophile than coming to the end of a good book.

I’m always reluctant to turn to the last page, knowing I have to say goodbye to the characters who had become my new best friends.

It is always with great anticipation then, that I embark upon an entire series. Because in a series I have the delicious promise of many more hours in the company of carefully crafted characters.

I’ve enjoyed many series throughout the years. But there are a few favorites I’ve kept on my bookshelf and read over again. I devoured many of the titles as a teen, while others are authors I discovered in the late-night baby-rocking sessions of motherhood.

Here are six series whose characters have become living, breathing, literary friends I’m introducing to my own daughters.

(And just in case you’re already best friends with each of these characters, I’ve added a few more series suggestions, as well. I’d love to hear your favorites!)

1.

Being captivated by a good chapter book can be a challenge in our screen-driven society. But these may well capture your kids attention!

Like many families from the ’90s, I have fond memories of our Saturday mornings. But unlike many others, it wasn’t Saturday morning cartoons that pulled us from our beds on the weekend—it was the kid’s radio programs on our Christian radio station.  

It wasn’t quite as simple as just getting up and turning on the radio, however. Because we lived in Alaska and our station was transmitted from a different time zone, we either had to get up at 4 a.m. to hear our favorite programs or talk my brother into getting up and taping them for us.

One way or another, we almost always caught our favorite shows—Ranger Bill, The Sugar Creek Gang, and the iconic Adventures in Odyssey. Listening to these radio shows blaring through the house on Saturday mornings will forever be one of my favorite childhood memories.

Along with loving radio programs, I was also an avid reader. I read books faster than my parents could supply them and the books I loved best were historical novels.

Finding treasured books can be challenging with the ocean of titles out there today. Here’s a short but sweet list of books for your teen girls.

I read and reread those hardcover copies of Louisa May Alcott’s books. My mom stored them up high in her special bookshelf with the glass doors. They were old books, maybe a little fragile. In fact, Alcott’s short stories was truly falling apart at the binding, and I was only allowed to read it while sitting at the table. 

It sounds cliche to say “favorite books are like old friends.” But there is truly something about those books; I picture their “faces” (covers!), I remember the deep conversations we had and the adventures we shared. It may have even been one of Louisa May Alcott’s books which I read by flashlight while hiding under my covers.

My young self thought that bedtime should be fluid when a good book is being read. (But my parents had other ideas, and their creative punishment of taking away my reading privileges for a day was downright terrible!) 

Now I find myself rereading some of my old favorites while also thoroughly enjoying new finds, content in the knowledge that there will always be another excellent book waiting to be discovered. 

Here are a few of my favorites for teen girls, but be warned, there are some spoilers in my descriptions!