About the Book

Everyone who believes Easter is about more than Easter egg hunts will be grateful for this new anthology of short stories that illumine the true meaning of the season. Selected for their spiritual value and literary quality, these classic tales capture the spirit of Holy Week and Easter in a way that will captivate readers of all ages. Parents and grandparents will find that children love to hear these stories read aloud, year after year.

Easter Stories includes time-honored favorites from world-famous storytellers such as C. S. Lewis, Leo Tolstoy, Selma Lagerlof, Oscar Wilde, Elizabeth Goudge, Maxim Gorky, Ruth Sawyer, Anton Chekhov, and Walter Wangerin – as well as many you’ve never heard before. Illustrated with original woodcuts.

softcover, 5.5 x 8.5
ISBN: 9780874865981

Book Trailer

Praise

This thoughtfully curated collection is remarkable for its range and breadth. The stories come from all over the world and represent many genres, such as parables, animal fables, historical fiction, fairy tales and Christian fantasy. Most of the stories are from the first half of the 20th century, but the earliest is from an 1857 edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and the most recent selections were written in 2015. Definitely read these stories at Easter, but keep the book close and pull it out whenever you and your family need a reminder of the great Easter themes of transformation, reconciliation and the triumph of life over death.

Clare Walker, National Catholic Register

A fresh offering, different from the many anthologies that already house the older works. Pastoral tales mix with urban tales, old with the new, European with American. This is a book to read aloud and savor, pulling it out each year to re-read old favorites and perhaps read a new story or two.

Redeemed Reader

The tales collected in Easter Stories: Classic Tales for the Holy Season don’t always mention Jesus, nor even the usual tropes like sunlight and springtime. But each reveal a particular melody of the Easter story. The lovingly crafted volume, edited by Miriam LeBlanc and published by Plough, features original woodcuts by Lisa Toth for each tale…. Reading these Easter tales invites our own stories to be shaped, too, by the Story, for our own hearts to thaw and for our imaginations to be steeped in the waters of resurrection.

Tessa Carman, Mere Orthodoxy

The heart of Easter can be found in the pages of this collection of read-aloud tales. Step inside the works of well-known authors such as C.S. Lewis, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, and others, as they explore the true meaning of the Easter season. Short and spiritual, these stories are perfect to be read again and again.

US Catholic

Tablet of Contents

  • Leo Tolstoy Two Old Men
  • Ivy Bolton The Golden Egg
  • Karl Josef Friedrich The Case of Rachoff
  • Ruth Sawyer The Deserted Mine
  • Anton Chekhov The Student
  • Claire Huchet Bishop A Dust Rag for Easter Eggs
  • J. W. Ooms The Barge-Master’s Easter
  • Walter Wangerin Jr. The Ragman
  • Kirk Wareham Easter Under a Park Bench
  • C. S. Lewis The Death of the Lizard
  • The Brothers Grimm Mary’s Child
  • Ger Koopman The King and Death
  • Oscar Wilde The Selfish Giant
  • John Masefield From The Everlasting Mercy