Easter is just around the corner, and a colorful book about egg-hunting rabbits is just the way to enrich the holiday for your kids. This year, take a gander at Easter The Bunny, a children’s book written by local author Joni Arlan.
This delightful little tale shares the fictional beginnings of Easter’s egg-hunting tradition at Easter Island. Easter, a bunny named after the island she was born on, hops around cheerfully with her brothers and sisters while playing hide-and-seek until she finds something strange—a chicken egg. Excited by her discovery, Easter decides to share the joy of finding eggs with her siblings. But the joy of this story is best found through its vibrant pages and cute artwork and story.
The book was inspired by Arlan’s research into the Easter Bunny and Easter Island as well as by her youngest granddaughter, who had passed away at the young age of 3 and a half. Despite this tragedy, the joy her granddaughter expressed and the photo of her Arlan carries—featuring her granddaughter sitting happily beside a big stuffed rabbit—is what sprung forth the idea of this book, and so Arlan is bringing joy to her readers and showing them Easter Island through her story.
She hopes that children will be motivated to learn more about the world, such as Easter Island, through the story’s setting. “It’s an interesting place, geographically. Children can learn more about the island and learn about the Rapa Nui culture and celebrations and things they have there. Hopefully it’ll spur an interest in geography.” Moreover, she wants her readers to know that life is fun.
Arlan also wrote the book to give better representation of strong women characters since children’s books seem to mostly have male protagonists, and she does this through the titular Easter.
Arlan plans on making a series of Easter The Bunny books. She has already written the second one, Easter and the Magical Bubbles, with illustration still needing to be finished, and ideas are forming for her third book.
Make sure to search for Easter The Bunny, written by Joni Arlan, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, her booth at T Marie’s Valrico Sunday Market and other places where books are sold.
