The Very First Easter by Paul L. Maier, Frank Ordaz Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Very First Easter
Book Review: Our family loves this book!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was looking for a "real" Easter book for the kids. Found The Very First Easter by Paul L. Maier. I can't tell you how much my girls LOVE this book. The format is a Mom and Dad telling their son about Easter based on scripture. Both the writing and the illustrations are just excellent!!!Book Review: THE VERY FIRST EASTER
Summary: 4 Stars
I believe that this is a good book to introduce children to the Christian faith. It is definately not a fiction. It lets us know and apreciate the passion, the sacrifice and love that our dear Lord suffered for salvation of the world. We celebrate Good Friday because on that Holy day, the Lord opened the gates of Heaven to all His people and reminds us how a wonderful God humbled Himself on the cross for the love of us to save us from eternal damnation. Any person who claims to read and know the Bible should agree with simple truths like this one. By the way If any Christian believes that the Bible is the inspired word of God, It was the Catholic Church aproximately in the year 400 A.D who came with the decision that the gospels we read today are worthy for the faithful to believe. The Catholic Church never deceived any one when it comes to faith and morals, but rather lead them to holyness and sanctity and prepare the faithful to eternity which all of us Christians know is the destiny of mankind.Book Review: VERY VERY GOOD
Summary: 5 Stars
This book follows the same format as Paul Maier's companion book, The Very First Christmas. Maier embeds the story of the first Easter inside the story of a 10-year-old boy named Christopher, who lives with his mother and father, a forest ranger, in a remote area of America's western mountains. As Christopher and his parents are sitting around the table dying Easter eggs, Christopher wonders aloud what the true story of Easter is. His Dad picks up the Bible and the two of them begin to read aloud from the book of Luke.The narrative follows their discussion as they read, with Christopher asking questions that any child might typically ask -- "How do we know Jesus was really God?" "Why did they hang people on crosses, Dad?" "But if Jesus had a solid body and wasn't a ghost, how did he get through the walls?" Maier's format works well in this setting. Quotations from Luke tell the story, but the discussion between Christopher and his Dad explain the Easter story in a way that seems natural and easy to understand.
While the text of this book is quite good, what makes this book a excellent addition to the Easter collection is the outstanding artwork of Francisco Ordaz. Beautiful, full page pictures take up the right hand side of each spread. These realistic and detailed illustrations do a superb job of furthering the viewer's understanding of the Easter story. Especially well done is a portrayal of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane and an illustration showing the women standing in amazement before the empty tomb. The Very First Easter is an wonderful book to share with a child, or anyone, who wonders what more there is to Easter than bunnies and painted eggs.
Book Review: Wonderful
Summary: 5 Stars
An absolutely spectacular book. The illustrations were just beautiful and the story is a lovely kid-friendly way to explain the sacrifice made by Christ. ...I have no problem with "devotions", you can easily translate this to whatever word you use in your household whether it be prayer, study, meditation on God's word, etc. I think it's used as an all purpose term for reflection on God's word, easily translated to whatever the individual family uses in the home. It's terribly sad someone would call the use of such thing dissappointing. This is really a time when Christians need to come together and not be divided over our different doctrines and wording.Book Review: disappointing
Summary: 3 Stars
I got this book to better explain to the kids the true meaning of Easter, something desparately needed in our culture of giant, chocolate-bearing bunnies. This book was an excellent idea in theory, but (unpopular opinion as I know it will be) the writing was just plain lame. Why does everything have to be "cool" when it's written for children. Ok, Christopher may have had a few good questions, but he also says, "ewwww," when Judas kissed Jesus. For this point alone I would have chosen not to read it to my boys - I don't want them thinking that there's anything wrong with 2 people kissing out of love and friendship, 2 men or otherwise and yes, even today (ok, I realize that's not why Judas did it, but that's beside the point).
But there's more: The story starts out that little Chrissy doesn't want anything but "true" stories anymore. No more fairy tales for him. Again, why would I want to even introduce an idea as ridiculous as this - I want my boys reading and enjoying fiction for the rest of their lives and refuse to plant a dangerous idea like this into their heads.
Overall, I found the text patronizing to children and chose not to read it at all to them. Granted the artwork was beautiful, but not worth the risk of putting drivel in front of my boys. (The artwork and the idea are what got the 3 stars.) We just went right to the bible and told the story and answered questions from there.