The Easter Chick

This is a pretty special time of the year. Spring is here! The earth is awakening after the long cold winter. New life is emerging everywhere. The Church is celebrating rebirth with a lovely holiday called Easter. I don’t know what “Easter” means. Easter is an unusual celebration, with rabbits laying colored eggs and kids eating lots of chocolate. I like eggs myself, but I’m not allowed the chocolate variety. I also like to join in the hunts for those colored ones. It’s my favorite game!

We have chickens here at the 7 Acre Wood and sometimes we have to hunt for eggs for real. Even when it’s not Easter.

Sometimes those eggs hatch and we get little baby chicks running around. They can be quite amusing.

At the library this week, we read a cute book about a little chick who wanted to hatch on Easter day and be an Easter Chick. Our friend Allie helped us read this one.

The Easter Chick
by Geraldine Elschner
illustrated by Alexandra Junge

This book was first published in Switzerland in 2003 under the title Das Osterkuken.
It was translated to English in 2004 by Marianne Martens and published by North-South Books

Theme: Easter, chickens, dreams can come true

Suitable for ages 4 and up

It begins –
Hilda had laid the most beautiful egg, and she fussed over it lovingly………Suddenly she heard a little voice. “Mother, when is Easter?”

Hilda is a lovely little orange hen with little lacy bloomers on her legs. She is worried about her egg that hasn’t hatched after several weeks. Then the egg starts talking to her! She is quite surprised!  The voice comes from the little chick inside the egg who has decided that it wants to hatch on Easter and be an Easter Chick. But it doesn’t know when Easter is. (Does anyone ever know when Easter is?) Hilda goes in search of the answer. She asks all the animals in the barnyard, but none of them knows when Easter is. They suggest that she ask Max the Owl.

Max tells her that three things must happen. First she must wait for the first day of spring. On that evening he will hoot once and Hilda must meet him by the barn. When March 21 arrives, Max hoots and Hilda rushes to meet him. He tells her that now she must wait for the next full moon. That night he will hoot two times. Now the illustrations show us the different phases of the moon as Hilda and her chick wait. When Hilda hears the two hoots, Max tells her that the next Sunday will be Easter. “Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon that comes after the first day of spring.” Whew!!

On Saturday night before the next Sunday, Max hooted three times and the chick knew that it was time to hatch. Everyone was happy and excited to have a little chick born on Easter.

This is a really fine little picture book. I like how it explains about when Easter is. Easter is not on any specific day like most holidays. It’s rather complicated. The illustrations are quite lovely and humorous. Ms Elschner has taken a serious subject and given it a light touch that makes it more accessible for youngsters. I think that Allie liked this one. I sure did. It had my mind thinking and wondering.

To find out about Easter and where that word comes from check HERE.

Backyard Chicken has instructions for incubating and hatching eggs.

Pinterest has bunches of fun chicken crafts for kids. And GAMES using plastic Easter eggs.

Now you might want to skip on over to Susanna Hill’s blog and see what she’s hatching today! It is Perfect Picture Book Friday and there should be a big list of Perfect Picture Books for you to browse.

I hope all your Easter dreams come true!
Your egg hunting friend
Rhythm