The Easter Fix – Steph Williams

The Easter Fix Steph Williams
The Easter Fix by Steph Williams
Also by this author: The Boy Who Shared His Sandwich, The Little Man Whose Heart Grew Big, The Dad Who Never Gave Up, The Dad Who Never Gave Up, The Little Man Whose Heart Grew Big, The Christmas Surprise, Little Me, Big God: Stories about Jesus: Eight True Stories from the Bible
Series: Little Me, Big God
Published by Good Book Company on February 1, 2021
Genres: Children's, Bible Stories
Buy on Amazon
three-half-stars

An engaging retelling of the Easter story that will help young children understand why Jesus died and came alive again.

This is the story of how God sent someone to fix everything. That someone was Jesus.

But Jesus didn’t come just to fix a few things. He gave his life to fix the thing that makes everything broken… our broken friendship with God.

This engaging retelling of the Easter story will help young children understand why Jesus died and came alive again.

In this small, staple-bound picture book, Steph Williams shares the Easter story with small children, emphasizing that Jesus came to fix our broken world. The story conveys different character’s emotions well, and shows that because some people closed their hearts to God and did not like the way that Jesus served others, they killed Jesus on the cross. The book says that the cross was a punishment for “bad people” even though Jesus was innocent, and then covers the miracle of the resurrection. After this, the author explains that we are guilty, and we have “said no to God” and been unkind. The conclusion emphasizes that because Jesus died for us, we can be in a right relationship with God and go to heaven, where nothing will be broken anymore.

For the most part, this book conveys the gospel narrative in a way that children can follow and understand, but I found the final page spread very jarring. In the illustrations, people have crossed over into a white page’s space of heaven, while an empty wheelchair remains on the dark page. Because none of the illustrated people were in a wheelchair previously, I found this very distracting. I know that the author’s goal is to show how people will be healed in heaven, but because there was no set-up for this, it didn’t work for me.

The Easter Fix encourages children to view Jesus as their savior and healer, and the note at the end provides additional context for parents and the text of Luke 24:1-8. However, even though this book tells the Easter story and shares the gospel, I found some aspects of its execution lacking. I wish that it had been clearer about what repentance and faith looks like, and I think that it would have been better if the book’s ending had been less abrupt, or at least had been sufficiently foreshadowed. This is still a good book, but it is not the best in the series.

three-half-stars