Our family doesn't celebrate the religious holiday but boy do we love Easter eggs, egg decorating and egg hunts. Lil and I like to prepare for holidays by reading legends and picture books. The four Easter books we found at our local library weave egg stories in a delightful way that would brighten any child's Easter basket.

The oldest Easter egg book we discovered this year was The Easter Rabbit's Parade by Lois Lenski. An Ohio writer who lived from 1893-1974, Lenski wrote lengthy, straight forward stories tied to a specific time and place. The Easter Rabbit's Parade tells of the farm animals kept by a young girl named Eliza. The livestock work together to make an Easter celebration for Eliza including eggs laid by Little Brown Hen and painted by Easter Rabbit and family.

Something new is the picture book Kiki. Author Christoph Schuler and illustrator Rahel Nicole Eisenring give life to a chick who is wise beyond her day-old age. Kiki observes that fighting hens are allowing thieves to steal their eggs. They will not stop arguing, so Kiki comes up with a clever solution to save and better the eggs.

For borrowed, Lil picked up Peter Rabbit's Happy Easter. I'm not sure how author Grace Maccarone and illustrator David McPhail got away with using the beloved character Peter Rabbit, but their book is charming. Peter characteristically makes a bad decision to steal eggs but ends up returning them, painted in bright and beautiful colors.

The odd blue-green cover of The Egg Tree caught my eye on the library shelf. A Caldecott Medal winner, Katherine Milhous' story sheds light on the Pennsylvania Dutch egg tree tradition illustrated with authentic drawing motifs and colors. A lengthy tale, The Egg Tree might inspire a new way to display decorated eggs at our house.

Do you have any favorite Easter egg books? Share in the comments!

PS. If you're searching for Easter gifts in Columbus this weekend, I have some suggestions on the City Folk's Farm Shop blog.

We love to prepare for holidays by reading books with Lil. Good Thanksgiving picture books are a little hard to come by because so many perpetuate myths about Native Americans. This year we are enjoying these food and family focused stories: old fashioned thanksgiving book An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott with illustrations by James Bernadin

A rural 19th century New Hampshire family is preparing for a harvest feast when the parents need to leave for an emergency. The older girls step in to try to finish the dinner with mixed results.

Thanksgiving Treat by Catherine Stock

Soft illustrations accompany this story of a young boy trying to contribute to his family meal.

Sometimes It's Turkey, Sometimes It's Feathers by Lorna Balian

When old Mrs. Gumm finds a speckled egg, she hatches it into a turkey. She raises the turkey in her garden, highlighting produce that ripens as the season goes by.

Do you have a favorite turkey day book to share?

NB: All links go to Amazon where these books are out of print but available used. Look them up at your local library - Columbus Public has copies of each.