EASTER MORNING, EASTER SUN

A rhyming story about a cat family’s Easter activities.

It’s Easter morning, and the members of what appears to be a family of differently colored cats gaze hungrily at a tray of what readers may recognize as hot-cross buns. This opening spread, like every other, includes four lines of rhyming text, each line starting with the word Easter: “Easter morning, / Easter sun, / Easter breakfast, / Easter bun.” All of the words used are associated with either the Easter holiday and/or the springtime season. Though the colored-pencil art is not particularly sophisticated, it is colorful, and the many anthropomorphic cat characters are easily differentiated. Anderson tucks careful, child-friendly details into the simple compositions, rendering flora and fauna with greater realism than the bipedal, clothed felines. The fact that one of the assumed parent cats is a black cat is a nice change from the usual stereotypes around black cats. That the many mice (at least one of whom lives in the cats’ house) in the story live in harmony with—and even help—the cats is both entertaining and sweet. This Easter story focuses on things like springtime renewal as opposed to delving into the religious background of the holiday. Instructions for preparing decorated eggs close the book.

A simple, secular Easter story best suited for younger readers.