(courtesy Penguin Books Australia)
Easter Eggstravaganza by Roald Dahl (illustrated by Quentin Blake)
Can you have Easter eggs all year through? Supermarkets and chocolate retailers seem to think you can; for no sooner has Christmas tinseled off into the distance than Easter eggs (and hot cross buns for that matter) are on the shelves and what a seasonal bit of fun, goes near 365/24/7. Not quite, but Roald Doahl urges you to consider the idea in his brilliantly colourful and playful book that suggests you can melt the eggs down to make a “gloriumptious” cake, or “if you’re feeling cheeky”, you can have a bit of a throwing fiesta with them. Or perhaps you just want to hide them for some future date when nothing will satisfy but Easter chocolate? Whatever you do with them, chocolate eggs can be around long after the Easter holiday weekend and reminder that all foil and fun and sticky frivolity can be yours all year round.
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia)
Are you tucking into the usual assortment of Easter Eggs? Covered in freckles (aka sprinkles) or filled with caramel or just traditionally hollow and delicious and milky? Have you considered maybe adding peas, or carrots or tuna or onions? No? Well, apparently the kids of the world have and at Easter Bunny HQ, eggs are made to order based on whatever kids say they want. If this sounds like too much fun for just one festive event, then the Easter Bunny’s “cheep” assistants, three brightly yellowed birds who decide they don’t want to just bring other peoples’ recipes to life, they want their own to get made, fraudulently hijack the system and cause all kinds of Easterly chaos. It’s messy, it’s chaotic and it damn near wrecks Easter until the Easter Bunny gets creative and everyone discovers that maybe the usual isn’t as necessary as they thought …
(courtesy Little Golden Books)
Let’s head back to 1953 and an Easter where Bugs Bunny doesn’t want to play the role of, you guessed it, as the town’s big event, choosing to set aside expectations and just do his own thing. “Bravo!” to might say; way before it’s fashionable, Bugs is practising self care and looking after what he needs instead of succumbing to pressure from organisers Elmer Fudd and Petunia Pig. But then Bugs notices a man in a suit stalking him; this pursuer is joined by a woman and then two kids and it looks like a gentle, sweet Little Golden Book is about to go Netflix streaming series dark. Turns out it’s not that dark after all and Bugs ends up having a rather lovely Easter, after all. But only by giving up all that integrity and firm self-care decision-making of the recent past. It’s all joyously Easter-y but also a little weird too …