A Royal Easter Story

“Can you help me find my way home?” Alina said with bright teary eyes as big as saucers.

“Of course! We will seek throughout the land to find your family,” the girls answered.

Book: A Royal Easter Story (The Princess Parables) by Jeanna Young and Jacqueline Johnson and Illustrated by Omar Aranda

Genre: Picture Book

Target Audience: Girls 3-8

Subjects: God’s love for us, showing love to others, Salvation

Summary: It’s time for the annual Easter Pilgrimage! The princess sisters are so excited! A bit overwhelmed, but excited. It’s their turn to lead the celebration so they are busy making decorations and gifts for it. Their excitement only grows when one of the king’s knights arrives with his five sons to escort the princesses on the pilgrimage. That plan backfires though, when Princess Grace challenges the knights to a race! Determined their way is shorter, the girls set off but when they pause for tea, they find something even more worth focusing on than the race. A little girl is in the bushes crying in fear. She has somehow gotten separated from her family. The five princesses gather up the little girl in their arms and bring her to their wagon to travel with them the rest of the way. They no longer care about winning the race, they simply want to find this little girl’s parents!

Notes: A Royal Easter Story is part of The Princess Parables series. It began as a series of leveled readers and has turned into picture books as well. Each book contains an idea from Scripture that it wants to convey through a story about Princess Grace, Princess Hope, Princess Charity, Princess Faith and Princess Joy. In this book there are a number of different focuses – some might say there are too many for the size of the story and the age of the target audience. However, all but one element of it is based off of Luke 11:9-13. The first theme of the book is the pilgrimage itself – the king explains that it is  “an annual celebration that helps keep harmony and peace between the  lands as we remember all that Jesus has done for us”. He explains that it is a journey to remember the resurrection of the Lord. So the first theme is that Easter is about Jesus’ resurrection. The second focus is how God is a good Father who delights in giving good gifts to His children – the king gives gifts to his daughters and reminds them of the greatest gift of all. The next focus is putting others first – the princesses had to forfeit their chance to win the race against the knights if they wanted to help the lost little girl. The next theme is asking, seeking and knocking – the book puts these words in capital letters when they fit into the story. In the back when it explains the parables from the story they point out that salvation is available to all who ask, seek and knock.

Spiritual Content Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Luke 11:9-13 – "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with a free review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. It passed the 4 year old’s test! :-)