Lauren Ducommun

This is such a lovely and delightful Easter book. The Friends and the Traveller by Sam Brewster is a rhyming picture book recounting the lesser-known tale of the men on the road to Emmaus and the stranger, or traveller, they encountered. While this Bible story may not be as popular, the story is so rich, full of truth, and has such a storybook ending!

Brewster begins by introducing the two men who were leaving Jerusalem, and how they met a man who had not heard of the prophet Jesus’s crucifixion. That traveller then shared:

“‘You haven’t read? The Christ,’ he said, ‘must suffer then be raised’
He quoted from the prophets as they wound between the hills,
he showed the, both that what they wrote, now Jesus had fulfilled.

In the end of the story, the friends realized it was Jesus and ran back to tell their friends. Jesus then appeared to the group of people.

“They ate with him, they touched him and they sat as he began
to show that he had always been the centre of God’s plan.

The Psalms, the Law, the Prophets–he was everywhere they looked.
Jesus Christ! The risen Lord! The hero of God’s book.”

The illustrations are warm and charming, and all the details are delightful. Many Easter picture books can be cartoony, and the words can be over-simplistic, but this is a picture book that the whole family will enjoy! 

The Friends and the Traveller
by Sam Brewster
10Publishing, 2024
32 pages