If I threw it back to the 1990s and made a David Letterman-style Top Ten Questions I Get In Children’s and Family Ministries, “How do I address Lent and Holy Week with children?” would be in the top 5. Part of the curiosity stems from wanting to address the events, themes, and implications in a developmentally appropriate way while not scaring the children. Part of it comes out of the adult’s deep questions about Holy Week. It can be HARD for any age level to process, synthesize, and apply it to their lives and when you’re a bit shaky on it, it’s even harder to address it with children. When a quality resource for just this topic lands on my desk, I snap it up, promptly stamp it with my personalized book stamp, and begin a sticky note of uses for it that lives on the front cover. The mail carrier delivered our mail at 5:45 pm today and by 6:15, Sparrow’s Easter Garden by Roger Hutchison was stamped and adorned with a sticky note. 

Sparrow’s Easter Garden is a sweet little picture book, sized to fit perfectly in a lap, in little hands, in pew baskets, and in the seat backs in front of a tot’s car seat. We meet Sparrow on the way to his garden in late winter. He is anticipating all the beauty and fun he and his friends had there in the summer past, but as he rounds the corner, he grows disappointed and discouraged at the mess. Sparrow and his friends rally together to clean it up and get everything ready for the growing season, with Mousie reminding all of them that they have at least forty days to get it ready for Easter. The language is simple and lets our preschool and early elementary aged children access the concepts of growth, development, and new life of a garden. But the imagery built into the phrases and paired with soft illustrations allow children and their caregivers to dip their toes into the faith practices parallels. Clearing a garden of dead plants and leaves to make room for new life allows the generations to discuss Lenten practices of prayer, study, and giving up habits that do not serve our spiritual formation. Turning over soil and mixing in new materials provides the opportunity to discuss taking on new, healthy habits that allow us to grow in our walk with Jesus. New sprouts are starting in Sparrow’s garden just in time for storms to roll in during Holy Week. Good Friday brings a fierce storm that causes destruction in the garden. The animals are bereft and frustrated, emotions that parallel how we walk through the events of Good Friday. With the encouragement of a friend, the animals pop up with the hope that they can get the garden prepped for Easter. They take Holy Saturday to rest and when they arise on Easter Sunday, they see the garden in bloom. They share stories, bless their food, and begin to sing hallelujahs, rejoicing in the newness. 

This little book packs punch far beyond its size. It’s perfect for families looking to grow their knowledge of Lent, Holy Week, and Easter. It definitely belongs in your Bedtime Stories and Prayers rotation for Lent. You can use it in your midweek sessions, pairing it with different growing projects (lima beans in grow bags, sunflower seeds in paper cups, regerminating romaine hearts, pea plants). Pop a prayer of your choosing with each planting project for a new Lenten prayer practice. You could schedule a church family hike one day, reading this book at the beginning, then heading out to snap photos of evidence of new growth. Looking for a Lenten gift for the families? This book would be excellent. Grab an extra copy or two to rotate into your pew basket offerings. But the top of my list for this year is to pull out one of the stuffies I have stashed, fitting it with a small backpack to hold this book, a seed packet, a small bag of soil, and a special mealtime prayer. I will then send it home with families each week, inviting them to spend the week with the stuffy and the book, enjoying it and then adding their own family’s favorite mealtime prayer to the backpack. The question you should be asking yourself is not whether or not you need this book for your collection but how many copies do you need. Start with at least one.