5 books with Easter craft ideas

List by Tosca

"Easter is the demonstration of God that life is essentially spiritual and timeless."
- Charles M. Crowe

Every year my siblings and I put together a day of Easter activities that involves a storytime, a couple of craft projects, a cooking session and then ends with our annual Easter egg hunt using multiple houses, clue cards, incentives, a quiz and a puzzle map. Our Easter day of celebration and remembrance came about accidentally when, a few years back, my nephews asked if they could have an Easter egg hunt. I remembered that mum used to set up egg hunts and craft activities for us as children and I wanted the boys to have that, too. I just wasn't sure if I could pull it off successfully. More importantly, my siblings decided that if we were going to do this we were going to do it well and use it as a chance to teach the boys about the actual meaning of Easter - that it wasn't all about chocolate eggs and hot cross buns. I'm not particularly religious (in spite of dad's family being Mormon and mum's being Anglican) but it didn't seem right to let them celebrate without understanding how it came about. We requested anything and everything containing information about Easter - no matter how small the info - that would, hopefully, give us ideas for how to plan out the day. Somehow or other (and I'm not sure I was there for the vote, in fact, I don't even know if there *was* a vote) it was decided that I would deliver the programme. Each year I review our library resources and try out new crafts, new story versions etc. which is why you have the (somewhat dubious) pleasure of reading this post! (This is the part where you look amazed at my skill and cunning...). This year, thinking things were going ahead as normal, I requested a variety of titles (my apologies to Manukau Library whose request shelves are overflowing with my holds - I'd look shamefaced but we all know I have no shame when it comes to books and this blog) only to learn that we won't be doing anything. Mr 7 and his mother (one of my many siblings) are moving to Wellington indefinitely (I'm desolate - who will I watch Doctor Who re-runs with?) and Mr 12 and Mr 13 have announced that they are too old for Easter, thank you very much. So, there you go. I've been stood up ahead of time. Their loss is (hopefully) your gain! I make no definitive claim that these books are the best of the best - they are, simply, 5 books with Easter craft ideas.

Top 5 most requested titles for March 2011

List by Natalie and Tosca

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."
Francis Bacon

Jean Auel, Lesley Pearse, Jeff Kinney, Maeve Binchey and Joanna Trollope round out our top 5 most requested titles for March 2011. Take a look...