THE STORY OF THE EASTER ROBIN

Mackall offers a trite, heavy-handed story of a little girl named Tressa and her grandmother, who are preparing decorations for Easter as they observe a robin’s nest on their windowsill. Tressa worries about the safety of the robin’s eggs, and her grandmother reassures her that God watches over robins as well as sparrows. The grandmother recounts a Pennsylvania Dutch legend about a robin that sees Jesus with his crown of thorns as he is carrying his cross. The robin tries to remove a thorn stuck in Jesus’s forehead, and a drop of Christ’s blood turns the robin’s breast a rosy red. Robins with their red breasts are thus explained as an Easter symbol of Christ’s suffering. Vojtech provides attractive full-page paintings with an appealing little girl and bright-eyed robins, but the story preaches rather than entertains. (author’s note) (Religion/picture book. 5-8)