Emma's Easter

Cloverleaf Books ™ - Holidays and Special Days

by Lisa Bullard, Constanza Basaluzzo (Illustrator)

Emma's family is celebrating Easter! Emma and her little brother hunt for Easter eggs and candy. They go to church. Then relatives come over for a big meal. Find out the different ways people celebrate this special day!

Genres: Picture Books, Holiday, Childrens, Family

24 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Lisa Bullard is the award-winning author of more than sixty books for children, including the middle grade mystery Turn Left at the Cow. She is also the author of the how-to guide Get Started in Writing for Children. Her books for younger readers include picture books and nonfiction titles such as Trick-or-Treat on Milton Street and You Can Write a Story: A Story-Writing Recipe for Kids. Her books have won several honors, including a Children’s Choice Award, two Teacher’s Choice Awards, a Science Books & Films’ Best Books listing, a National Parenting Publications Children's Resources Silver Award, and a Storytelling World Awards Honor Title. For over fifteen years, Lisa has taught writing classes for adults and young people at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and in a variety of other settings. Lisa is a graduate of the University of Denver’s Publishing Institute.

Reviews

[Clwseattle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew! Emma's Easter is the epitome of a diversity Easter story: a mixed race family, explanations of many secular and religious traditions and their origins, and a multi-generational family coming together. This little book gives a lot of information really well in an easily understandable and colorful way.

[Kathleen]

Emma's Easter is one of the many nonfiction books by Lisa Bullard. This picture book is about Emma, the main character, and her family celebrating Easter. Throughout the story, Emma is trying to find a particular egg with her name on it (ex. she looked in a hat, in her yard, and even in her dog bowl.) As a literacy teacher, I would use this story to teach capitalization of words. For example, the first word of a sentence should be capitalized, the names of countries, and people's name (ex. the book mentions Russia and Scout.)The children can interact with this book by having their own Easter egg hunt in the classroom. Although I am aware that not every child celebrates Easter, the teacher can use an Easter egg hunt as a guide to make an educational game. In my situation, teaching capitalization, the teacher can hide words and have children search for the words and fix their capitalization. I enjoyed the diversity shown in this book. I believe some children can relate to this. I thought the author and the illustrator did a very good job creating a multiracial family because not every family is the same (ex. mother is white, father is African American, children are mixed.) In addition, the diversity shared throughout this book allows children to accept other families that may look different. Lisa Bullard is an American and the family in the book seems to live in America. This textbook gives a perspective of a family who celebrates Easter(ex. my church believes that Jesus rose from the dead. They eat kulich.)

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emma is a mixed American and African-American girl decorating Easter eggs with her mother, father, brother, and dog. Her favorite egg was the egg with her name on it. The morning of Easter Emma and her brother wake up to find the candy the Easter Bunny left and searched for the eggs he hid around the house. Throughout the course of the day, Emma is looking for her special egg but cannot find it. As she gets ready for bed that evening, she finds her egg under her blanket on her bed. This would be a fun book to read to elementary school students around Easter. Author Lisa Bullard incorporates facts about how different cultures celebrate the holiday and every other page. An example of this is when Emma and her family are at church the afternoon of Easter, she has “Jesus lived on Earth two thousand years ago…They started a religion called Christianity.” Lisa Bullard and illustrator Constanza Basaluzzo both are American women who celebrate Easter in a traditional way. They do a good job of text and illustrations. You really see them come to life in the pictures because they are bright, colorful, and eye catching.

[Diana Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked that the book made it interesting to learn facts about Easter. The illustrations are very colorful and stand out. The context is simple and easy to understand. I also liked how it had an example of an interracial couple because students can relate. I also liked how the book had a table of contents, a glossary, and was divided by short chapters. Which introduces children to these things that they will encounter when reaching harder levels of reading. I also liked the resources that it had on the back to do activites to do for Easter. It portrayed a lot of diversity not just with race but with cultures. It also talks about different aspects of Easter and how not everyone celebrates it for the same reasons but that it's a good time to share fun with friends and family.

Content Statements:
1. Easter is during Spring.
2. Easter is celebrated in Christian churches.
3. Kulich is a type of Easter bread common in Russia.

Use in class: I would use it to introduce the Easter holiday in the class but also focus on the spring time and how it brings new life.

[Michelle Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This narrative is about Easter told from the perspective of a little girl, Emma. She goes throughout the book looking for Easter eggs. She is interested in a particular one with her name written on it. She goes through the rituals her family takes part in related to Easter like going to church and Easter egg hunts.. As a teacher I would use this text to relate to some students who participate in Easter celebrations. I could also use this to inform others, who do not know, what Easter is about. I enjoy the fact that there are excerpts of actual facts about Easter within the illustrations of the text. I also appreciate that this books portrays a interracial couple. It could help relate to students who are biracial. The author is Caucasian so I would think that she is familiar with the activities talked about in the book.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute Easter book. The illustrations show how people in the U. S. A. celebrate Easter. The family in this book, are of different races. You can click on the print to enlarge them. There are boxes that give information about how Easter came to this country from Germany, and other facts about Easter. We learn about the different special breads, that are eaten by different ethnic groups at Easter.This is a good little children's book.

[Viviane Elbee]

This picture book is divided into chapters. It has an egg decorating chapter, a church chapter which explains a tiny bit about Jesus and the Easter Holiday, and an Easter Bunny egg hunt chapter. One of Emma's grandparents is from Russia so there is a brief description of other countries celebrating Easter and their cultural customs. Emma's other parent is African-American. The kids liked it. Because of the chapters, reading could be spread out over a few days for younger children.

[Nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasant combination of Easter eggs, family time, and going to church. Miss 5 liked that the Easter Bunny had left Emma's egg on her pillow.

Miss 5 and I like to explore different books and authors at the library, sometimes around particular topics or themes. We try to get different ones out every week or so; it's fun for both of us to have the variety and to look at a mix of new & favourite authors.

[Elizabeth Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

so cute. perfect for yesterday ...which was Easter ... great illustrations. happy. vibrant and so so fun. check it out any ole' time!