Jennie's Hat by Ezra Jack Keats

This is a cute little book about a girl obsessed with fancy hats at the moment. Although it never directly says a date, this book takes place in spring, and therefore probably takes place around Easter, when a new hat would be terribly important. 

Jennie has a vivid imagination, so when she hears that her aunt is sending her a hat, you can tell Jennie has high hopes for the new hat. 

(Ezra Jack Keats is a marvelous illustrator. Her dress! So mod and 1966-ish.) 

Her utter disgust at the plain hat she received from her aunt. 

Her attempts at finding a more interesting hat.

Thinking about hats is interrupted by the clock. At three o'clock every Saturday, Jennie goes to the park to feed the birds. The birds are expecting her, so go she must even if she hasn't a glorious new hat. 

Funny story about this picture--our doctor's office has this illustration as a print on the wall of their waiting room. I have always loved it and have wondered who it was by. One day, I was cleaning the kids room and I saw this book. I opened it up to this page and lo and behold! there was the picture I had been googling and searching for! I felt terribly lucky.  

Buying books at a library book sale for 25¢ means bulk quantities. With so many books to go through, I don't carefully look at each one. If the author's name is as recognizable as Ezra Jack Keats, I know it will be worth having without having to read it.  A lot of books get brought home and set on the shelf without me really knowing the book.  

Think of all the delightful things that are possibly hanging out on my bookshelf without me knowing it!

 It makes me feel rich. 

Delightful spring picture!

I love her pouty little face! You can just feel her indignation at not having the hat of her hopes and imaginings. It is such a universal kid feeling--maybe not the hat part, but the yearning for something and the frustration at not being able to have it/do it because you are too little/too poor/too unlearned.

Poor Jennie. 

Sunday morning, Jennie peeps out her window at all the fabulous hats going by. 

At church, sitting there in her plain hat, she is surrounded by flower garden hats. 

As they leave the church, Jennie notices some birds flying close by. 

A la Cinderella, these birds come to help their friend out. Bringing flowers and little trinket's they have found, they make Jennie's hat the most flowery and elaborate one of all.

I love the way Keats draws these birds.

A nest of baby birds is the crowning touch. Now Jenny is satisfied with her hat. 

She takes it home and wraps it up so she can remember it always. 

Lotta's Easter Surprise by Astrid Lindgren and illustrated by Ilon Wikland

Another book by Astrid Lindgren and Ilon Wikland! 

Cute little egg cup bouquet

Ilon Wikland has some gorgeous illustrations, like in this book, but in this book, the perspective seems all wonky. I am not as in love with the pictures. But I still like this book. I like Lotta and her feistiness. Her older brother and sister had promised to play Easter Witches with her when they got home from school and instead, they are gadding off to some friend's party and leaving Lotta behind. 

No wonder she is mad.

Poor, abandoned Lotta. 

"She was alone, and sad, and mad. But after a while she wasn't mad anymore, strangely enough, just alone and sad. And then, a little later, she wasn't even sad anymore, just alone. That's when she started to wonder what she could do until Jonas and Maria came home. She was good at finding things to do."

So Lotta sets off to find things to do. Her mother is doing housework to have a sparkling house for Easter.

Lotta goes out to see the garden.

Then she goes to see Mrs. Berg next door. Mrs. Berg suffers from asthma, so Lotta helps her out now and then, fetching things like Mrs. Berg's glasses from the woodshed, since Mrs. Berg would huff and puff just going to the woodshed. 

"But I can walk as far as I want without getting out of breath at all, thought Lotta with satisfaction."

Astrid Lindgren does kids so well. 

Lotta moseys down to the village to look at the candy shop windows.

Alack, alas, the poor Greek candy shop owner is closed up and moving back to Greece. The Swedish do not eat enough candy to keep him in business. He has a box of leftover Christmas candy and wants to know if Lotta would like it. He has to ask three times before she will really truly believe her good fortune. 

Lotta lugs the bags of candy home and hides it for a surprise. Maria and Jonas are back and want to play at Easter witches now, and Lotta has to get rid of them so she can finish hiding her loot. So she tells them she doesn't want to play Easter witches now. 

She takes the carrier bags into Mrs Berg's woodshed and finds a trunk to tenderly lay her treasured Santas and marzipan pigs down.

Finally, Lotta could hurry after Jonas and Maria to be Easter witches. However, they waited too late in the day. With the local candy shop closed, the neighbors are all running out of candy and Lotta, Jonas, and Maria get none. 

Apparently in Sweden, Easter witches go up and down the street, calling on all the neighbors, who give them candy--a little like Halloween. This is based on an old custom that said Witch flew south to cavort with Satan for the Easter weekend. The candy was to speed them on their way. Some kids decorate pussy willow branches and give them in exchange for candy, saying this little rhyme,

"I wave a twig for a fresh and healthy year ahead; a twig for you, a treat for me!"

Eating together that night, they discover that the Easter Bunny (Lotta cannot figure out what this has to do with her Dad) didn't know the candy shop was closing and didn't prepare. So the Morning Easter egg hunt will have to be postponed. 

Lotta has other plans. Early the next morning, she sneaks over to Mrs. Berg's and gets out her foil wrapped Santas, marzipan pigs, and Christmas angels. 

Oh the joy! No one knows how this happened. And Lotta isn't telling. 

Happy Easter!

A Tale for Easter by Tasha Tudor

I read this once, several years ago, and decided I didn't like it. Although I love Tasha Tudor, this book just seemed... pointless or silly. I don't really know what I thought. I just didn't like it. 

I saw it displayed on our library's seasonal shelf a week ago and picked it up again. And it really isn't that bad. I don't adore it with the white hot fervor I reserve for some of Tasha Tudor's books, but it is cute and short and it isn't a chore to read it to the kids.

And somehow, I didn't know it was about a dream. (Clearly my reading comprehension could use some work.) Pretty much, I had an idea of how I thought this book should be (signs of spring) and it wasn't totally like that and I just dismissed it. 

Not that I jump to conclusions or anything....  

But no matter what, Tasha Tudor has adorable pictures.

So precious!

So this book is about the things that tell you Easter is coming; new dresses and hot cross buns. And then the night before Easter comes and if you have been good, you dream lovely dreams. 

And then the book walks through a lovely dream. Of a deer stopping to let you hop on the back.

And the deer takes you to see all the signs of the spring. Bunnies.

Little mice

Fleecy lambs

Ducklings

I love this picture!

Dream deer

Daffodils show up in all the best dreams.

And then, after the lovely dream, you wake up and it is Easter. And there are colored eggs in your shoes. (Why shoes?)

How darling would a basket of ducklings be? 

How are they keeping the bunny there, I would like to know. Why doesn't it hop off and hide underneath the bureau? 

The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown and Leonard Weisgard

This book is gorgeously illustrated with a simple, straight forward story line. Margaret Wise Brown only actively published books for 15 years (before she died of a complication from an appendectomy), but she left a major mark on the world of children's literature. Her simple, often poetical words, conveyed an entire worldview in a few short sentences. Her stories are often permeated with coziness, security, and a child like fascination with the natural world.

Margaret Wise Brown books are good ones to keep around.

See all those lovely signs of spring? 

Once a little bunny found an egg. He was consumed with curiosity about what was in the egg. 

There were so many interesting possibilities for the occupant of the egg that the bunny simply had to know what was in it. 

He listens, he shakes. No clue.

He kicks, he jumps, he throws nuts. Nada.

He gets more insistent. He pushes it down a hill and throws rocks at it. 

Although modern sensibilites are a little shocked at bunny's violence to the poor egg, to a child, this is perfectly normal. How does bunny (or a child) know what would harm some object? They find out through trial and error. So children are not concerned with bunny getting a little rude. 

And then...! It makes a noise! So exciting!

But.... the slightly noisy egg continues to sit and bunny gets sleepy. 

Finally, we see what was in the egg. But does Bunny? No sir-ee! He is snoozing.

Duck is intrigued.

The duck kicks at the bunny. 

Nothing.

He jumps on the bunny, throws a little rock, and rolls him down the hill.

Ba-zinga! The bunny awakes. 

"Where is my egg?" said the bunny. "And where did you come from?"

"Never mind that," said the duck. "Here I am." 

Adorable friendship. 

Kids love the symmetry and sense of fairness in this book. Bunny behaves a bit badly to poor duck-in-egg, but duck-out-of-egg gets a little of his own back, 

Then they can be friends.