The Hot Cross Bunny by Carys Bexington & Mark Chambers

The Hot Cross Bunny immediately appealed to me with its genius title and Mark Chambers’s gorgeous springtime illustrations, which contrast beautifully with Steve the Rabbit’s grumpy expression.

Steve is in a mood because he wants to win the Golden Egg Cup but hasn’t been able to grow one single easter egg all year long. Misadventure follows when Steve sets aside his How To Grow An Easter Egg For Bunnies book and decides to follow his own recipe, with the help of a chicken called Nugget.

This, however, turns out to be a recipe for disaster because, instead of an Easter Egg, the friends grow a chocolate-loving dragon who’s going on an egg hunt of his own – to eat all the easter eggs in the real world!

Steve and Nugget leave the pastel-coloured Isle of The Great Easter Bunny, with its rolling egg-shaped hills, in a scramble to save Easter Day and, from then on, it’s mayhem and madness and lots and LOTS of poo!

Author Carys Bexington has created a fun picture book full of mayhem, madness and lots and LOTS of chocolate and poo – sure to be a hit with little ones this Easter. And despite all the chocolatey fun, the underlying message is a warming one of friendship and team work.