3 Spring Picture Books!
By Lindsey Cornett
Englewood Press Managing Editor
Consider the Lilies
Jennifer Grant (Author), Julianna Swaney (Illustrator)
Hardback: Eerdmans Books for YR, 2026
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Consider the Lilies is the second book in the “Consider” series from author-illustrator duo Jennifer Grant (Maybe God is Like That Too) and Julianna Swaney (We Are the Gardeners). The first book, which was released in August 2025, was Consider the Birds, which I thoroughly enjoyed (reviewed for The ERB here.) That book used Jesus’s words from Luke 12 as a jumping-off point for a counting primer that also layers on a message about God’s care and love.
In this second installment, we consider Luke 12:27: “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these” (NRSVUE). Grant has used this verse as the inspiration for a primer on colors: We see red poppies, purple coneflowers, and more. On the book’s opening pages, Grant’s lyrical text reads, “White Queen Anne’s lace is waving in the breeze. Its tiny flowers are tasty for bugs and for bees.”
Swaney’s illustrations shine. Botanical illustrations are her sweet spot, and the paintings in this book are kid-friendly, yet worthy of framing and hanging up anywhere in your home. I love the book’s design, how the flowers reach and grow toward the sky while the text floats in the white space above.
Still, this book fell a bit flat for me in comparison to Consider the Birds. The language is more stilted, lacking some of the first book’s rhythm and lilt. But it is the ending, in particular, that felt sudden and incomplete. It’s only one line less than the ending of Consider the Birds, but in a book of such brevity and economy, one line can make a huge difference.
While Consider the Lilies was not, in my opinion, as effective as the first book in this series, I still enjoyed it and wouldn’t hesitate to give it to a toddler or preschooler in my life. The third installment in this series, Consider the Night Sky, will be published this fall, and I look forward to reading it.
Poems for Every Season: A Year of Haiku, Sonnets, and More
Bette Westera (Author), Henriette Boerendans (Illustrator)
Hardback: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2026
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Bette Westera is a Dutch writer with an extensive catalogue of children’s books and translations. Her newest title is this collection of sixteen poems, each a lovely and clever turn in a walk through the seasons and the year.
The book is divided into sections for each of the four seasons, beginning with springtime. Each season is introduced with a haiku, keeping with the Japanese tradition of exploring nature with these brief poems. For spring, Westera writes:
Pale petals drift down
through the silky springtime sky
to tickle the clay.
In between, there is an additional poem for each month of the year, and each of the twelve is a different poetic form, from limerick to rondel to sonnet (and even a new form Westera created called a “stacking poem”). The imagery Westera employs is lovely and captivating. It’s simple enough to engage the youngest readers, but when coupled with the illustrations and the back matter (which explains each poetic form and invites readers to try their hand at poetry themselves) stretches the appeal of this book to readers and aspiring poets of all ages.
The illustrations are woodcut prints, and they are outstanding. The cover is an autumnal, orange-toned print of squirrels harvesting in a tree. It invites you in then is immediately contrasted with the cool of a light blue sky, against which a flock of geese flies. The reader is compelled to keep turning pages, and every image holds its own. The introductory haiku are each afforded a two-page spread, where the brief poem is given plenty of space to breathe against the landscape Boerendans created. We see geese, blossoms, a lamb, a bee, as well as the occasional barn or fence, each beautifully rendered.
As I read the book, I was inspired to write some poetry, too, and couldn’t resist grabbing a pencil and paper and trying out some of the less familiar poetic forms in this book. This is a sign of a good picture book: the reader is not only captivated by the words or pictures but further inspired to engage with and embody whatever invitation the book offers.
In this case, the invitation offered by Westera and Boerendans is two-fold: First, to appreciate the beautiful and constantly shifting natural world; and second, to express themselves creatively through language and art. What a gift!
The Great Waking Up: The Story of Easter
Sarah Shin (Author), Shin Maeng (Illustrator)
Hardback: WaterBrook Children’s, 2026
Buy Now: [ BookShop ] [Amazon][ Kindle ]
The newest picture book from husband-and-wife team Sarah Shin and Shin Maeng follows a fictional Jewish girl, Anastasia, as she is a witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This story does a few things particularly well: linking Old and New Testaments, including the voices and perspectives of women, and articulating the despair Jesus’ earliest followers felt over his death.
Sarah Shin has told this story creatively, connecting the life of Jesus to the Old Testament prophecies that his life reflected and fulfilled. This makes it a unique and valuable offering in the range of children’s books about Easter. Anastasia’s mother, Anika, narrates the traditional hopes and dreams of the Hebrew people to her daughter. Anastasia asks her mother, “Tell me again about the Great Waking Up.” Anika narrates the vision of the “valley of the dry bones” from Ezekiel 37. “The dream meant that one day our people will wake from the deep, dark sleep of death to live forever with God,” Anika says. “The prophets say the Great Waking Up will follow the coming of the Deliverer…and I know the Deliverer, Jesus, is here.” From there, the story links Jesus’s resurrection miracles of Jairus’s daughter and Lazarus to the eventual resurrection of Jesus. The storytelling does not rush through the sadness Anastasia and her mother feel over Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and death. Their grief is narrated and illustrated well, and the reader feels it.
Shin Maeng’s illustrations are lovely and add visual interest and vibrancy to the story. The thick lines and bright colors have a stained-glass quality, which is appropriate for both the tone and content of the book. I appreciate that the people depicted, including Jesus, are rendered with culturally-appropriate skin tones (if not clothing). I particularly love the rich detail in Maeng’s depiction of the Ezekiel 37 prophecy; the pages are worth lingering over. Maeng has also been intentional about depicting a diversity of people and cultures in Anastasia’s dreams, harkening to “a great multitude from every nation.”
While I worry that this book is a bit lengthy for its target audience, it adds much needed nuance and emotional depth to the Easter story for children. I could imagine it being read in sections week-by-week during the Lenten and Easter seasons to great effect.
Lindsey Cornett
Lindsey Cornett is a loud talker, obsessive coffee drinker, and lover of the written word who lives in downtown Indianapolis with her scientist husband, 3 kids, and crazy Bernedoodle. Most days, you’ll find her wrangling the dog, managing snacks, reheating her coffee, and trying to savor as much joy and gratitude as she can in the middle of these very full days. Lindsey writes a monthly-ish email newsletter about the intersections of faith, community, and curiosity at lindseycornett.substack.com.
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