Customer Reviews

Easter Egg Haunt (Tales from the Back Pew)

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When it comes to church, kids sometimes think and say the darnedest things. The Tales from the Back Pew series takes a light-hearted look at some of the misconceptions our children may have about church.

In Easter Egg Haunt, the main character is heading over to the Easter egg hunt at church. In preparation, the kids paint all sorts of things on the eggs. After the kids finish the decorating, their Sunday school teacher tells them the real story of Easter. As it turns out, Easter is actually all about Jesus. Eggs and bunnies were added later, much like Santa Claus was added on to Christmas.

Children ages 4-8 and their parents will enjoy the light-hearted fun found in the Tales from the Back Pew series. As you complete each story, you'll be able to talk about the realities of "church life" and how it really isn't as bad as they maybe thought it was at first. Be on the lookout for two new titles in this series (Walking the Plank to the Baptism Tank & The Three Wise Guys), both scheduled to release later this year.


Mike Thaler, known as the Riddle King of America, is the author of the popular Black Lagoon books and the Heaven and Mirth series. He lives in Portland, Oregon, and travels nationally, speaking in schools, libraries, and churches.

Jared Lee is an accomplished illustrator with experience working for the likes of L.L. Bean, Procter and Gamble, Hasbro, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, and the U.S. Postal Service. He currently resides in Lebanon, Ohio.

If you're looking for a zany way to teach children the true meaning of Easter, Easter Egg Haunt, written by Mike Thaler and illustrated Jared Lee, may be a great choice.

Full of puns and jokes, this cartoon-illustrated book is ideal for a boyish or boisterous sense of humor, as well as for children who are only being introduced to the principles of Christianity in the early grades.

"It's Easter, and our church is going to have an Easter egg hunt. I hope they're not scrambled!" the text begins. Our young male storyteller wonders if the preacher will dress up like a bunny (or maybe Bunzilla or the Easter Mummy), while in Sunday school class, the girls paint flowers on eggs and the boys mostly paint their eggs like clowns. Our storyteller paints his eggs to look like Frankenstein. When the Sunday school teacher suggests this may not quite be in the spirit of Easter, our storyteller asks "What is the spirit of Easter?" The teacher then explains the true story of this holiday.

"Why is it called Easter and not Wester?" our young storyteller asks. "Maybe it's because the Son rises in the east." Then he wonders what Easter really has to do with eggs. "Well," the teacher replies, "the eggs are eggstra. People added them to the Holiday...sort of like Santa Claus was added to Christmas." The same is true with the Easter bunny, he says.

"'So,' I said, 'Easter is really all about Jesus.'
'Like everything else.' My teacher smiled. 'Like everything else.'"

The book also includes three pages of Easter-related riddles and jokes, interspersed throughout the main story of the book.

What I Like: The humor running through this book is the stuff many preschoolers and early graders adore. The illustrations compliment the text so well, one wonders if Mike Thaler and Jared Lee are twins separated at birth. I also appreciate that this book, in quite a succinct manner, tells the biblical story of Jesus' resurrection and explains matter of factly that eggs and Easter bunnies are just fun "eggstras" some people add on.

What I Dislike: It's distracting to read the interspersed riddle pages and all the little dialogue bubbles within the main illustrations. I suggest reading the book without these extras first, then going back and adding the sillier stuff later.

Overall Rating: Very good.

Kristina Seleshanko
Managing Editor
Christian Children's Book Review