Things I've Read Recently (45): Easter

If you're new around here, Things I've Read Recently is a series of posts I do that are basically mini-reviews of books that I either forgot to review, didn't have enough to say for a full review, or just didn't want to do a full post about for whatever reason. Sometimes they're themed for holidays. I needed a bunch of these books for a thing, so I thought I'd shar with you guys.

If you're not an Easter person, check out whatever last week's post was! I'm scheduling this way in advanced so I have no idea yet what it is. I don't know how I got so many blog posts either. I'm a little frightened. Come, hide with me in the Easter candy.

Except not Peeps. Those are horrible. And I realize the irony of that considering:

This really bad joke I made like six years ago and has never stopped making me giggle. Seriously, though, I bought some candy cane Peeps on clearance (because, you know, it's January when I'm typing this) and they were absolutely disgusting. And it's not just the candy cane flavour, it's the whole texture and everything.

So gross.

Anyways, here's some Easter books!

Captain Awesome and the Easter Egg Bandit by Stan Kirby

Published: January 6th, 2015
Genre: Contemporary Middle Grade/Chapter book
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 117 in the paperback copy I have
Part of a series? I believe this is the 13th of the series.
Got via: The library
Amazon / Book Depository / Indiebound

Summary (from goodreads): To celebrate Easter, Eugene and his classmates decorate some eggs at school. Eugene's is the most MI-TEE of all! But when he enters the classroom the next day-GASP!-they're gone! This is a case for Captain Awesome and the Sunnyview Superhero Squad. They sniff out the trail and round up the usual suspects, but the evil Easter egg bandit escapes them. Will Captain Awesome and his team of superheroes track down the villain before Easter is ruined?

Thoughts: I was ordering Easter books and saw this, and thought I'd order it for my Storytime graduate. There's lots of pictures, rather large font, and it's pretty easy, ages 5-9 suggested, but it's fun. There are some very gigglesnort inducing moments, and I think reluctant readers would enjoy it. I'm writing this in March 2015, and for a two month old book, it is pretty roughed up already, so either someone was a little bit careless, or some people have really enjoyed this one.

Not my favourite (and it's weird that a school would paint Easter eggs? What if you have Jewish students?) but it's fine for what it is.

Junie B., First Grader: Dumb Bunny by Barbara Park

Published: February 13th, 2007
Genre: Contemporary Middle Grade (Chapter book)
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 119 pages
Part of a series? Yes, there are 17 Junie B. Jones books, and then 18-28 are the "First Grader" ones, all under the "Junie B. Jones" series header. This is the 27th of the series.
Got via: The library.
Amazon / Book Depository / Indiebound

Summary (from goodreads): It's an Easter Egg-stravaganza! With over 50 million books in print, Barbara Park’s New York Times bestselling chapter book series, Junie B. Jones, is a classroom favorite and has been keeping kids laughing—and reading—for over 20 years! In the 27th Junie B. Jones book, Lucille is having an Easter Egg Hunt at her rich expensive mansion! And guess what? The winner gets a play date to swim in Lucille's heated indoor swimming pool! Only, here is the problem. How did Junie B. get stuck wearing a big dumb bunny suit? And how can she possibly find eggs when she keeps tripping over her huge big rabbit feet? Being a dumb bunny is definitely not as easy as it looks. Will Junie B. end up with egg on her face? Or will the day deliver some very uneggspected results?

Thoughts: I really love these books. I think they are absolutely hilarious, and parents will probably love them as much as kids. I got this for my Storytime graduate, who didn't bite at the Valentine's Day one, but is a bit older now and may enjoy Junie more. I seriously just really love these. They're ridiculously funny, and adorable, and I really enjoy them. I laugh a lot reading them.

Short review, but highly recommended. (And this is a RL 1.8, by the way, if you care about that kind of thing.) 2017 edit: Also, I'm not sure if this was true when I wrote this review and I can't even remember if I wrote this in 2015 or 2016 because this post does include multiple years of books, but when I was adding in the amazon link, I noticed that this has a slightly redesigned new cover! Check it out on amazon. I like it and I'm glad the books in general got a little spruced up, without completely getting rid of the original cover art.

Heidi Heckelbeck and the Tie-Dyed Bunny by Wanda Coven

Published: January 21st, 2014 by Little Simon
Genre: Fantasy MG/Chapter book
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 119 plus an excerpt of the next book.
Part of a series? Yes, this is book ten of the Heidi Heckelbeck series with sixteen books in the series currently published and at least two more expected.
Got via: The library.
Amazon / Book Depository / Indiebound

Summary (from goodreads): Heidi brings home the class bunny over Easter weekend—and finds herself in a magical, colorful mess!

Easter is just a few days away and Heidi Heckelbeck can’t wait! The holiday weekend is even more special because it’s Heidi’s turn to take home Maggie, the school’s bunny. But when Heidi takes Maggie out of her cage, trouble follows. Maggie escapes from Heidi’s arms and runs through all of the Easter egg dye! Will Heidi figure out how to un-tie-dye the colorful bunny before she has to take her back to school?

Thoughts: I haven't read any of the other books in this series, but I think that's kind of representative of how kids read sometimes. They see a cool book, they want to read it, not read nine other books first, you know? I think this works well in the aspect, functioning as both a book of a series and one that is understandable unto itself (although I'd have to read more to say definitively about the series aspect). The only part that is a little sudden in this book is that it's kind of "BAM magic!". I honestly wasn't really aware going in she was a witch until about 70 pages in when it came up.

On a whole, though, I liked it. The magic aspect works well, and is very sweet in how it's used, and I'd be interested in learning more about the world and setting. I loved that kind of thing as a kid, and I think there's a wide appeal. This one also has a lot of appeal to young animal lovers. I know there are some kids where if I say there's a bunny (or cat, or puppy, or horse) in a book, they're automatically interested!

This is aimed at around ages 5-7, and I think the frequent pictures and larger, simple text are perfect for that age range. There's a little bit of a "mean girl" thing I wasn't a huge fan of, but otherwise, this was good. There's also a good lesson about pet care and responsibility, and while those have obviously been done a lot, it's done well here and they're repeated so often for a reason. (Although I heard you're not supposed to bathe rabbits because it can kill them, so that part of the book gave me a pause.)

And as for the actual Easter element, it's mostly limited to dyeing Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies. It's background, mostly, if you're not so into that element, and you're just looking for rabbit books.

Ogres Don't Hunt Easter Eggs by Debbie Dadey Marcia Thornton Jones, illustrations by John Steven Gurney

Published: February 1st 2004 by Scholastic
Genre: MG Fantasy-ish if you've read one of these, you know what I mean.
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: 61 pages of story, with 17 pages of activities, plus about the authors and book listings putting it at about 96 pages.
Part of a series? Yeah, there are a lot of these. I said the whole thing in this post and I'm not doing it again.
Got via: The library.
Amazon / Indiebound / Abebooks

Summary (from goodreads): There are some weird grown-ups living in Bailey City. But could the man fixing up the park for the town Easter egg hunt really be an ogre? It's been raining ever since Brutus Bigg arrived in town. And even though he's supposed to fix up the park, he seems to be messing it up so on one will go there and bother him. Is Mr. Bigg an ogre trying to claim the park as his home? The Bailey School Kids are going to find out...but will they be able to stop him in time for the Spring Festival? This special edition is full of super spring puzzles and activities, too!

Thoughts: I adored these books as a kid. If you had left me alone in a room with all of these for a week, I probably could have lived off them alone. I've only read a couple more recently, but they seem to have held up well. This one at least doesn't use any pop culture or technology references that would date the book. The Easter element is also limited to an egg hunt the town does and how much the kids want to win.

One question I do have - why are these kids so paranoid? Slightly weird new gardener = ogre! Then they convince a hoard of kids to chase this guy with cats. Can you imagine being this guy? You're just doing your job trying to make the local park look nice, fighting terrible weather, and suddenly a herd of children show up and randomly chase you with cats. How do you even explain that to people?

But this was fun, and that kind of silliness can be nice for kids who aren't quite ready for more scary books, or just aren't a fan of scary things in general. I also liked the extras/activities they included. I always think those are tons of fun, and this is just fun overall. Good stuff.

Okay, so. Hope the big Bunny treats you and yours well, or Happy Passover or have an awesome Ramadan, or if you don't do anything at all, have a good weekend!

Peace and cookies,
Laina