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The Country Bunny and the Little Golden Shoes by Du Bose Hayward, illustrated by Marjorie Flack. First published in 1939, The Country Bunny is a fascinatingly feminist take on motherhood for its era. Author Hayward (the man who also wrote Porgy, which would be adapted into George Gershwin's musical Porgy and Bess) tells the story of a happy mother of many children who gives up her dreams of becoming one of the five appointed Easter Bunnies (yes, there are five, not one, didn't you know?) who are the swiftest, wisest, and bravest bunnies in the land - but then seizes the opportunity to show her stuff when selection time comes, and proves that her childrearing skills actually demonstrate her worth. She then takes on the challenges of helping the other four Easter Bunnies deliver eggs to all the children of the world. | Buy on Amazon 
The Bunny Who Found Easter by Charlotte Zolotow, illustrated by Helen Craig. A little bunny hops through the seasons of the year in search of a place called Easter, because that's where a wise old owl told him he'd find other rabbits. In the end, the bunny learns that "Easter was not a place after all, but a time when everything lovely begins once again." Through the rabbit's journey, which spans the summer, winter, and spring, The Bunny Who Found Easter emphasizes the Easter holiday's position as a time to celebrate and a time of renewal of the earth and the seasons. | Buy on Amazon
The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd. This may not be an Easter book, but it's one of my favorite children's books and you can't have too many bunnies for the holiday. In The Runaway Bunny, a little bunny wants to run away from his mother but mama lovingly thwarts every one of the little bunny's plans. Hurd's imaginative illustrations are beautifully painted and feature a hidden bunny-child and a mama coming searching. Z has enjoyed locating the hidden bunny in the pictures since we first found the book when she was two years old. | Buy on Amazon - Jennifer
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We actually have all of these books for our twin girls and love them all. However, I wish I could find MORE religious based Easter books that are a decent read. I haven’t found many that are well written. I wish that more people would remember that Easter/Christmas - the MAJOR holidays (that mostly everyone gets off from work!) are based on Christianity and Catholicism. The roots of these holidays are religious and Santa/EBunny are spin offs and symbolic of the true meaning of the holiday. I wish I could find books that explained that. Sigh.
Melissa, you raise some great points. We have found that books written on the topic of Easter are more likely to be complete junk than those written for pretty much any other holiday; perhaps publishers put out inexpensive, poorly-written and badly-illustrated books because parents will buy them to put in Easter baskets, only to discard them soon afterwards. We honestly don’t look for religious Easter writing, so it is interesting to hear that you have the same experience in your own search.
As for the meaning of the holiday, I’m not sure how useful it is to cite a “true” one, except within the context of raising our children to share our own cherished beliefs. The origins of Easter are quite mixed, including many pagan elements (rabbits, eggs) that are only peripheral “spinoffs” if you are looking at them from a particular perspective. It’s no coincidence that the name Easter itself is derived from Scandinavian and Germanic goddesses of fertility, and although rituals celebrating the return of life to the earth after the winter months are less crucial to our modern society than they once were, we appreciate (and observe) this period as a time to appreciate the coming of spring and all of the good things it brings us.
The dates of Easter and the spring equinox often fall far closer than they do this year - Easter is always the first full moon after the equinox, and this year that puts it nearly a month after the March 21 equinox.
We tend to celebrate this time of regeneration on Easter Sunday, probably as a result of the convenience of aligning our celebration with the secularized trappings of Easter. With the exception of the candy, which we keep to a minimum, and some of the waste (we try to minimize our use of single-use plastic), we love every bit of it!
We wish you a happy and joyful Easter holiday as you celebrate it in accordance with your own values and spiritual tradition. And if you find any particularly good Easter books that link the Christian Easter story with the secular aspects, please let us know so we can share them with readers - I’m sure many would appreciate the recommendation!