This is the latest of the four books in the Fatcat series.
In their previous children’s book, Natasha Kennedy and Todd R. Hains shared the story of the wise men’s search for Jesus, calling it The King of Christmas – All God’s Children Search for Jesus.
Their latest book takes its theme from Jesus’ words to Zacchaeus: “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” They have called their book The King of Easter – Jesus Searches for All God’s Children. The first three books in the series featured a FatCat hidden on each page, reminding us that the illustrator and author are seeking to unpack the CATechism for children. Don’t worry – FatCat is still here – and sometimes it takes a bit of a hunt to find him, but this time he is joined by FauxCat (is he a raccoon?), Knock Knock, Wormy and Fudge (a bird, a worm and a goat).
Jesus finds people who are lost and saves them. In this short, wonderfully illustrated book, he encounters and saves eighteen people, or groups of people, and, at the end, we find we haven’t been forgotten, because Jesus saves all kinds of people who are lost – good people like his mother Mary and bad people like the thief on the cross. He saves people like Matthew, who are hated by others, and Saul, who hated Jesus himself.
The cross is not emphasized in this book for children, but we see that Jesus saves us by his life, his death and his resurrection. I like the way it complements the previous book by showing us that while we may search for Jesus, he has already been seeking us.
As with the rest of this series, the book includes useful supplementary material for parents. There’s a double page spread of all the people Jesus searches for, with Bible references showing us where they appear in God’s Word. There’s a short Easter service you can use in your home, and a user-friendly explanation of the book’s rationale.
The book is designed for four to eight year olds, but could easily be used with younger children.
As with all FatCat books, Jesus and the characters portrayed are of different nationalities and are definitely not all white Anglo Saxons!
I highly recommend The King of Easter and am sure parents and children will enjoy going through the book many times.