Title: The Garden The Curtain and the Cross – the true story of why Jesus died and rose again
Author: Carl Laferton (illustrated by Catalina Echeverri)
Useful for: parents of children 4-8ish wanting to share the reason Jesus died and came alive again
Best bit: stunning, colour-filled artwork, not too many words on each page, strong, simple, theological explanation of why Jesus died using the imagery of the temple curtain being torn.
Worst bit: the repetition of the phrase, “Because of your sin you can’t come in” meant these were the words I came away remembering, rather than the good news about Jesus.
Price: RRP £8.99 Available from the publisher for £7.64
This book explores the link between the story of the garden of Eden (where God placed winged creatures to guard the garden after Adam and Eve had to leave) with the curtain in the temple (with winged creatures on it) which tore when Jesus died on the cross. The book describes the winged creatures as a kind of Keep Out sign, and that when the curtain tore it was like God ripping up the Keep Out sign. This metaphor isn’t one which will be familiar to many children and so it’s both a fresh way of telling the Easter story as well as good way to share the meaning of the cross.
For me it was a little too focused on going to heaven rather than the transformation Jesus makes to our lives now (the now and the not yet and all that), but I loved the invitation to say, “Thank you Jesus! You’re amazing!” today.