Resurrection Reads

This month we will celebrate the resurrection of our Savior on April 20. In honor of that blessed event, I’d like to highlight books written by two of my writing mentors. Within my own writing journey, the advice and encouragement and support I have received from Crystal Bowman and Laura Sassi have been invaluable. Here’s a look at two of their recently published books:

R Is for Risen (©2025 by Tyndale Kids) is a wonderful resource for teaching kids about Jesus’ three-year ministry before His resurrection. As an English teacher I love the way authors Crystal Bowman and Teri McKinley incorporate the alphabet to help kids remember these all-important events. From alpha to omega, from the first to the last, from A to Z, this beautiful book shares important verbs, nouns, adverbs, and pronouns relating to Holy Week and the ministry of Christ. (ELA teachers could use those highlighted parts of speech as a bonus lesson!)

I love how the end pages are filled with puffy blue clouds that suggest the abiding place of our Risen Savior. Those same clouds, subtly hanging from many of the letters throughout the book, speak to me of their symbolic significance.

“After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” –1 Thessalonians 4:17

I give this book 5 stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Laura Sassi’s book Faithful Feet (©2025 by Worthy Kids) takes children on a journey through Holy Week as well while it also helps readers explore the paths of some of God’s faithful Old Testament followers.

Filled with fun rhymes, this book can help children see the potential for their own feet to become faithful followers of Christ.

“God loves it when you use your feet.
And in the Bible, pair by pair, you can find feet everywhere!”

 I recently shared this book with a group of preschoolers. They loved the colorful images, and they enthusiastically pointed out the differences in their own unique feet. They especially liked the pages depicting David and Goliath because the giant’s feet were “really, really big.” They also had great fun coloring the image of Christ based on the book’s illustration by Emanuela Di Donna. You can download the free activity kit here.

This second “Resurrection Read” also shares the importance of the Easter story.

“Then on His feet, so lovingly, He took the cross to Calvary.
Then Jesus hung upon that tree and paid sin’s debt for you and me.”

 I give this book 5 stars as well! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I am grateful to the writers of both of these books for their inspiration, encouragement, and support of my own writing.

More importantly, I am grateful to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for His ultimate sacrifice so that I might have eternal life.

“Christ the Lord is risen today, sons of men and angels say. Raise your joys and triumphs high; sing, ye heavens and earth reply.”—Charles Wesley

“Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”—Martin Luther

“’Twas Easter Sunday. The full-blossomed trees filled all the air with fragrance and with joy.”—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Matthew 28:6; John 19; 1 Peter 1:3; John 11:25-26