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Sweet Pea & Friends #5

The Easter Surprise

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The fifth book by the authors of the media sensation and instant New York Times bestseller The SheepOver , featuring a curious bunny and her baby farm animal friends solving an Easter mystery together.

Fern the bunny wakes up one morning to a the squirrels have discovered a beautifully decorated egg in their tree! And it's not just the squirrels--Mo the kitten, the goslings, the puppies, and even the lambs have all found special eggs hidden around the farm. As the baby animals follow clues from one egg to the next, Fern thinks she sees two soft, pointy ears peeking out above the grass. Then she notices a fluffy tail disappearing behind the barn. Then she spots long whiskers twitching among the flowers! Someone is watching, and the animal friends will have to solve their Easter mystery together to find out who.

With vividly evocative photo illustrations, John and Jennifer Churchman bring to life a delightful story based on real animals and events on their Vermont farm.

40 pages, Hardcover

Published February 12, 2019

19 people want to read

About the author

Jennifer Churchman

8 books3 followers

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Community Reviews

5 stars
10 (13%)
4 stars
29 (38%)
3 stars
20 (26%)
2 stars
13 (17%)
1 star
4 (5%)
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
Profile Image for Lindsay L.
886 reviews1,701 followers
January 12, 2019
4 stars!

A delightful and adventurous Easter children’s book.

This bright and colourful book contains a cute and clever Easter mystery that was a fun and entertaining journey to read with my children. Benjamin (my three-year-old son) and Olivia (my five-year-old daughter) loved following the Easter egg clues to try to solve the mystery. This would be a perfect Easter present for children.

Thank you to Hachette Book Group for providing me with a physical ARC to read and review!

Expected date of publication: February 12, 2019.
Profile Image for Kathryn.
4,796 reviews
April 9, 2020
(3 STARS from me. But my son loves it, so I'll bump it up to 4)
This is part of a big series which I've never heard of before. It was a bit difficult having this as the first introduction because there are SO many farm animals and trying to keep track of all their names as if we are old friends was challenging. Perhaps this is not the fault of the book but it definitely makes it a bit hard to recommend as a stand-alone. The story itself is rather clunky and long-winded and lacking in any literary charm, but the photographic illustrations are really kind of oddly mesmerizing and the animals are adorable. My four-year-old son loves this and has asked for many re-reads so I guess it's a hit with the target audience. We will probably look for others in the series once the libraries reopen.
Profile Image for Raven Black.
2,917 reviews5 followers
April 11, 2019
The fifth book in the Sweet Pea series. If you like quaint stories about talking animals you will like these. This time our little animal friends go on a mystery hunt where they keep finding these lovely colored eggs with images of themselves on them. And who is the mysterious critter Fern keeps seeing out of the corner of her eye? Does Sweet Pea have the answer to these mysteries? Perhaps. If they can find Sweet Pea!
Profile Image for Shauna Ludlow Smith.
821 reviews
March 18, 2020
Beautiful illustrations of gorgeous Easter eggs in his little board book. Kids will like the darling animals.
Profile Image for Jurene.
362 reviews
May 17, 2022
Do you remember Lisa Frank? This is like Lisa Frank art come life. The pictures and colors are beautiful. A story about friendship, working together, and having fun.
1,646 reviews2 followers
April 15, 2019
The Easter Surprise is my first Sweet Pea and Friends book. At first I was put off by the real life photos, rather than drawings usually seen in children's books. But as I looked again, I marveled at how the authors found perfect expressions for the animals juxtaposed with the perfect expressions of the animals with whom they are interacting. Was the story riveting? No, not really, but it's a cute little 'mystery' with gorgeous egg artistry.

I bought The Easter Surprise for our 5 year old granddaughter and can already hear her oohing and cooing over every single animal, each and all of which she will want. My disclaimer is that The Easter Surprise was not my first choice to buy as her 2019 Easter book. Happily, it wasn't that far down on the list of possibilities.
Profile Image for Erika Powers.
371 reviews
March 25, 2024
Gorgeous and silly fun! I love the Ukrainian eggs, painted by a friend of theirs, all the animals belong to the authors, and the author is also a photographer, what a wonderful way to bring all of those things together. The story is a little hard to follow, but nobody cares because the pictures and animals are so cute and excellent composition. The fact that the animals aren't in ratio to each other is hilarious. Kids will love the animal friends and the egg hunt. A rounded out, happy ending! Perfectly spring and easter vibes!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Marie.
1,426 reviews12 followers
April 1, 2021
Joe and I actually agreed that this one ended up being rather a dud. It's got a kind of meandering storyline that doesn't seem to really lead anywhere. And every single character is named, so it was hard for me to keep up with which animal was which; Joe was completely lost. Finally, it's photo-illustrated, but looks like not-great photoshop. Joe actually said he was a little frightened of the "huge" bunny.
2 reviews
May 12, 2020
I have read and loved all the books in the series written and photographed by the authors of their own barnyard animals. And I have given them to my neighbors grandchildren as gifts. They were so delighted to receive these brightly colored books printed on quality paper and I was delighted to have made their day!
Profile Image for Ruth Ann.
2,039 reviews
February 14, 2019
Absolutely adorable photo-illustrations in this picture book/mystery about Fern, the bunny, and her friends finding lavishingly decorated Easter eggs.
(Sweet Pea is a lamb -or sheep - depends on her age!)

Information in the back about Fern and some of her friends.
10.8k reviews30 followers
May 14, 2019
Using pictures of the animals on their real life farm the author follow the adventures of one of their rabbits around the farm hunting for decorated eggs and who might be hiding them. Elementary and up
Profile Image for Jessi.
692 reviews14 followers
March 14, 2019
What a friggin' weird, poorly photoshopped book.
27 reviews
December 12, 2019
Bought a copy for my nephews! So excited to have a Vermont Author writing about the animals at his farm! LOVE!!
Profile Image for Amy.
1,024 reviews13 followers
December 19, 2019
I wanted to give this more than 2 stars because it is so adorable. This cute book, however, has a long and winding story that might lose the attention of little ones. It would get an extra half star from me for all of the photographed bunnies, kittens, sheep, and ducks, which also might help some kids to enjoy it. Final verdict: 2.5 stars.

Profile Image for Anna.
2,443 reviews16 followers
August 5, 2021
This book is so cute and I really enjoyed the photoshopped animals. They're adorable and it works. The story is sweet and now I want to read the other books revolving Sweet Pea and their friends.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews

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