Review - Good News! It's Easter!

Good News! It's Easter!
by Glenys Nellist
illustrated by Lizzie Walkley
Date: 2019
Publisher: Discovery House
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 18
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

Written by best-selling and award-winning author Glenys Nellist, Good News! It’s Easter! is a playful and joyful introduction to the gift of new life through Jesus. With its vivid imagery and stories of both nature and Jesus coming to life, this book will surely delight young readers and intrigue them to learn more about the salvation message.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Oh, dear. This is not the book for a heathen like me.

The pictures are very cute, and the rhyming text is nice for the majority of the book as new life blossoms in the spring. (Well, it was all good except for the rabbit "bouncing" his speech. How does one do that, exactly?) But then... oh, but then Jesus jumps out of a cave shouting about salvation. It was just too much for me, and I actually laughed out loud. I knew there was going to be some sort of religious message here; I just didn't expect a jack-in-the-box Jesus to come springing out. (Thank goodness it wasn't a pop-up book!)

I'm afraid I don't really get it. The book would've been fine on its own as a story about spring and renewal. The religious aspect just kind of comes out of nowhere and hits you over the head. It's kind of unnecessary, and turns what could've been a book with wide appeal into one that's aimed at a smaller audience. If the author wanted to write a book about Jesus' resurrection, she should've just done that; combining it with all the nature stuff (including the monarch butterfly, which I'm not sure even exists in the Middle East) is just confusing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Discovery House for providing a digital ARC.

Premise: 2/5
Meter: 3/5
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.43 out of 5