Children's Religious Books Easter Basket Gifts
Best Ideas – Children's Christian Books for Easter Gift Baskets
Feb 26, 2009
Chocolate candies and candy Easter eggs are delicious, but why not have kids devour children's Christian books, too? This Easter holiday, slip a few of the following suggestions for children's Catholic books into children's gift baskets.
Children's Religious Books for Babies and Toddlers
Safe board books can introduce young Catholic kids to religious stories and basic information about the Catholic faith. Babies and toddlers will particularly enjoy playing with ones:
- with fun textures to touch, like the Level 2 Touch and See Bible illustrated by Eileen Hine [Standard Publishing Company, 2004].
- with pictures that pop out, like books from the Bible Pop-Up Pals series [Standard Publishing Company, 2007].
- with squeakers to push, like the three books in the Squeak Along Bible Books set [Regina Press Malhame & Company, 1999] – Thank You, God; Jesus Loves Me; and All God's Creatures.
First Catholic Bibles for Easter Gift Baskets
Easter is a good time to give both babies and older children Catholic children's Bibles as Easter basket gifts. Good first Catholic Bibles include:
- Baby's First Bible [Reader's Digest, 1996], with a handle and latch to make it easy to carry to church.
- the Lift the Flap Catholic Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones [The Regina Press, 2000], which combines stories from the Bible with detailed illustrations containing many flaps for children to peek under.
- My First Bible by Ettorina Ottaviani [Pauline Books & Media, 2003], which has illustrated tabs to mark each story, simple text for children to read, and more complex text for parents running along the bottom of each spread.
Books to Introduce Catholic Kids to the Catholic Mass
Kids can also benefit from receiving children's Catholic books that introduce them to the parts of a Catholic Mass. Such books, which can be carried in totes each Sunday to Mass, include:
- the St. Joseph Carry-Me-Along Board Book We Go to Mass by George Brundage [Catholic Book Publishing Company, 2004], which is suitable for readers ages 4 to 8. This and other books in this series (such as Gifts of God and Our Blessed Mother) are made of sturdy cardboard with a built-in handle for easy carrying.
- We Go to Mass by Jude Winkler, Lawrence C. Lovasik, and Thomas J. Donaghy [Catholic Book Publishing Company, 2004], whose illustrations double as fun jigsaw puzzles.
Books About Easter
What better time to receive a book that tells the story of Easter than on this special holiday?
- The Easter Story with Catholic Scripture by Tracey Moroney [Regina Press Malhame & Company, 2007] is a board book version of the Easter story told according to the approved Catholic version of scripture. The edges of the illustrations jut appealingly above the top of each page, tracing the outlines of trees and other objects.
- Catholic Baby's First Easter by Isaac M. Wise [Regina Press Malhame & Company, 2000] also tells the Easter story and includes a plastic side latch and handle, which makes it easy for children to carry it along to Mass.
- Things I See at Easter by Julie Stiegemeyer [Concordia Publishing House, 2004] pairs labeled pictures of objects associated with going to church at Easter (Bible, palm branch, thorns, and so on) with short sentences explaining how each object relates to Jesus.
Religious Books with Educational Activities
For religious parents who want to encourage Catholic children's intellectual and spiritual growth, books that include educational activities might be a good choice for religious Easter gifts.
- The books in DK's My Little Church Book series – Bible Stories and Bible Animals [DK Preschool, 2005] – contain classic Bible stories and activities to develop early learning skills, such as asking readers to identify objects in the pictures or to answer simple comprehension questions.
- The Young Learner's Bible Storybook by Dr. Mary Manz Simon [Standard Publishing Company, 2002] contains 52 Old and New Testament stories that each come with games and songs to teach concepts like shapes and colors and with suggestions for Bible verses to read and prayers to pray.
The gift of a religious book at Easter is a gift that will continue to give all year long as the child plays, reads, and learns from it. To fill the rest of the space in children's gift baskets, parents can read about other ideas for Catholic Easter basket gifts.
Parents can also check out more ideas for Easter gifts and activities.
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