Easter Morning, Easter Sun

Written by Rosanna Battigelli

Illustrated by Tara Anderson

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-177-9

24 pp.

Ages 3-6

March 2021 

For those who celebrate Easter, Rosanna Battigelli and Tara Anderson will give life to your celebrations of hot cross buns, Easter egg hunts and family feasts. For those who don't, Easter Morning, Easter Sun shares springtime festivities that herald a new season of colours, freshness and connection of family and friends. So, we're all invited to enjoy Easter Morning, Easter Sun.

From Easter Morning, Easter Sun by Rosanna Battigelli, illus. by Tara Anderson

This Easter begins, as it does for many, with an Easter breakfast and hot cross buns which the mother cat has just pulled out of the oven. Then the family heads outside with their baskets, as do other families, for an egg hunt and to enjoy the spring: apple blossoms, a robin singing at its nest, a white duck and her ducklings on the water, and daffodils and grape hyacinths colouring the grass.

From Easter Morning, Easter Sun by Rosanna Battigelli, illus. by Tara Anderson

In rhyming verse, Rosanna Battigelli lets us join the diverse family of cats–mom is a white cat, dad is a jauntily-bereted cat of black, while little ones are grey, grey-striped, orange-tabby, and brown tabby–as they listen and watch and enjoy.

Easter springtime,

Easter buzz,

Easter chirping,

Easter fuzz.

They tumble and play, alongside a family of charming mice, until, to the evident delight of all, their guest, a dapperly-dressed rabbit with half-moon pince nez eyeglasses, joins them until it's time for goodbyes.

Easter sunset,

Easter light,

Easter bedtime,

Easter night.

From Easter Morning, Easter Sun by Rosanna Battigelli, illus. by Tara Anderson

Rosanna Battigelli delighted us with her debut picture book Pumpkin Orange, Pumpkin Round (2019), which was also illustrated by Tara Anderson, giving us a holiday-themed rhyme perfect for young children. They'll appreciate the rhythmic verse and repetitive nature of the text, sure to know the words after just a few readings. It's simple in its vocabulary but meaningful and comprehensive in its story. This is all the more so due to Tara Anderson's artwork created with oil-based coloured pencils and mineral spirits. There's a texture to her illustrations, from her medium to her technique, that emulates the grain of a blanket or the grass, the water or the cats' fur. What's more, her cats never fail to bring joy and smiles from their expressions and antics, and now we have mice from Tara Anderson that do likewise.

It doesn't matter if you celebrate Easter or not because Easter Morning, Easter Sun will take you into one cat family's festivities to partake in their traditions–you can even decorate your own eggs with the recipe provided–and rhyme along as they enjoy their day.

From Easter Morning, Easter Sun by Rosanna Battigelli, illus. by Tara Anderson

Pumpkin Orange, Pumpkin Round

Written by Rosanna Battigelli

Illustrated by Tara Anderson

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-092-5

24 pp.

Ages 3-6

September 2019

Get ready for some Halloween festivities with Pumpkin Orange, Pumpkin Round and engage young children in the Halloween holiday with only the fun and delight, and none of the fear or creepiness so pervasive in the celebrations of older trick-or-treaters.

Whether you're a parent or teacher, you'll know of the annual October visit to the pumpkin patch to pick out a perfect pumpkin or two for Halloween night.  In lively rhyming verse of two word phrases that always begin with the word "pumpkin", Rosanna Battigelli welcomes the reader to participate in the sensory experience of that pumpkin path visit  and the subsequent carving of the jack-o'-lantern (instructions for "You Can Carve a Jack-o-Lantern Too!" are included on the endpapers), without the travel or the mess.

From Pumpkin Orange, Pumpkin Round by Rosanna Battigelli, illus. by Tara Anderson

From Pumpkin Orange, Pumpkin Round by Rosanna Battigelli, illus. by Tara Anderson

Then, just as so many children will be doing on October 31st, the felines of Pumpkin Orange, Pumpkin Round prepare for their costumed foray into the neighbourhood for a bit of trick-or-treating.

Pumpkin mask,
pumpkin dare,
pumpkin candy,
pumpkin scare!

From Pumpkin Orange, Pumpkin Round by Rosanna Battigelli, illus. by Tara Anderson

Finally they return home to a snack, a story and bed.

So many children love Halloween for the dress-up and the candy but little ones rarely get into the scary aspects of the day and, for those many children, Pumpkin Orange, Pumpkin Round is a perfect holiday read. Its light rhyme will get children repeating the text, first predicting and ultimately reading, with its metrical melody of syllabic fun. Rosanna Battigelli has pitched her first picture book perfectly for the very young, ensuring a fun read that invites them to take on their own reading.

Illustrator Tara Anderson's bio shares that she has cats at home and perhaps that explains why she knows these feline wonders so well, anthropomorphizing them into playful children of diversity. They vary in colour and size, expression and activity and present the enjoyment of a special day spent with family and friends. Her artwork, coloured pencil and acrylic glaze on watercolour paper, emphasizes the bright oranges and complementary purple of the pumpkins and the night, exuding playfulness and caring. Her characters are adorable, the days and night comforting, and the action enthralling.

Young children may not know that costumes and jack-o'-lanterns were originally used to ward off spirits on All Hallows' Eve but they do know the joy of pumpkin picking and carving and dressing up and procuring oodles of candy and, with Rosanna Battigelli and Tara Anderson's picture book, they can do so on many nights before and after October 31st.

From Pumpkin Orange, Pumpkin Round by Rosanna Battigelli, illus. by Tara Anderson