Customer Reviews

Easter Eggs for Anya: A Ukrainian Celebration of New Life in Christ (Traditions of Faith from Around the World)

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I purchased this book from Amazon prior to Easter along with several other titles ("The Egg Tree" by Katherine Milhouse, Brian Wildsmith's "Easter Story," "An Easter Celebration," and "Birds' Gift") to help kick-off in earnest our family library of seasonally-appropriate children's books. While I'd consider each book a welcome addition to our collection and sound choices for our children, "Easter Eggs for Anya" was the unequivocal gem of the lot.
The story is simple, but well told, the illustrations are quite good (I'm very picky about children's book illustrations and these really are nice), and the underlying message (gratitude and joy in the Resurrection of Christ at Easter) is neither heavy-handed nor watered-down.
The story is told from the perspective of Ukrainian peasants and, as a result, includes mild cultural references, in the text and in illustrations, that are uniquely Ukrainian. However, they are minor additions explained in the text and hardly off-putting to adult readers or child listeners. As the tradition of dyeing Easter eggs originates from the ancient Ukrainian practice, I would assert that this book is a welcome addition in any family that celebrates Easter, regardless of their cultural background. My mother-in-law, who hasn't a slavic bone in her body, absolutely loved the book. As does my three-year-old son (who has only a few, very small slavic bones).
The book is pro-Easter, pro-Easter eggs, pro-family, pro-Christ, pro-Christian, pro-prayer, and pro-Ukrainian.

A wonderful Easter tale that incorporates prayer, thankfulness, faith, and family into the story to really focus on the Meaning of Easter!

"Easter Eggs for Anya" is a story about Anya, a poor girl from the Ukraine who wants to get eggs to decorate for Easter. She discovers four goose eggs around Easter (Pascha) after praying for them. After not having enough money to purchase the eggs, (since her father was away at war), the discovery of the eggs was a true blessing for Anya!

Pysanky eggs (Easter eggs typically dyed red and decorated with folk scenes using beeswax) are a unique Eastern European tradition, and all Anya wants to do is decorate them for her family as a surprise.

At the end of the book, there is more cultural information about Ukraine, and a few activities to do with children focusing on Easter.

Great for kids of ALL ages, and my children (two and four) sit and listened to it a lot during Lent.