Hopping down the bunny trail.

With Easter just a month away, it's time to check out seasonal picture books, old and new. For child-friendly versions of the Gospel story, none has come close over the years to two classics. In Easter (Knopf, 1989, apparently out of print but available secondhand), Jan Pieñkowski illuminates selections from the King James Bible with the dramatic, gilt-edged silhouettes that have made his name. And in Brian Wildsmith's The Easter Story (Oxford, 1993; Eerdmans, 2000), the small donkey Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday tells what became of that "good and kind man" against backdrops of the Holy Land rendered in colors from Fra Angelico's palette.

For a secular take on Easter, it's hard to beat The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes (Houghton Mifflin, 1939; still in print), Du Bose Heyward's inspiring story of a "young lady Cottontail," busy mother of 21, who shocks the "great big men bunnies" by proving herself wise, kind and swift enough to be appointed an official Easter Bunny. Think Nancy Pelosi with fur. But this is also the season to dust off the books of Margaret Wise Brown, doyenne of bunny aficionados and mistress of words that sing themselves into the memory. Not just Goodnight, Moon or The Runaway Bunny, either. Look for The Golden Egg Book (1947; reissued by Golden Books, 2004), featuring Leonard Weisgard's original warm, fuzzy pictures of the friendly rabbit that helps a duckling hatch. Or Nibble Nibble, five utterly simple poems cherry-picked from Brown's 1959 book of the same name and given winsome new illustrations by the nature artist Wendell Minor, out last month from HarperCollins ($16.99; ages 4-8). "Here comes a bunny/ The first to stray/ Out of April/ And into May."

Although this year's new titles fail to displace Pienkowski or Wildsmith for biblical Easter offerings, there are a several notable entries in the rabbit and chick departments:

Thunder Bunny, by Barbara Helen Berger (Philomel, $16.99; ages 4-8). The runt of the litter "was a surprise. Even her own mama said 'Oh, my.' " Well, no wonder. She was bright blue. In this odd but ultimately heartening fable about finding oneself, Thunder Bunny figures out she's a piece of the sky, "a sun and moon bunny, clear and true and out of the blue." Berger has confined her signature paper collages here mainly to Easter-appropriate shades of spring green, blue, yellow and pink.

Hurry! Hurry!, by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Jeff Mack (Harcourt, $16; ages 3-5). It lacks a rabbit, but otherwise this rollicking rendition of a farmyard hatching is as good a tale as any for a season that celebrates new life. Summoned by the rooster -- "Hurry! Hurry!" -- goat, ducks, cows, sheep, dogs and pigs race, scramble and totter to the barn just in time to see a chick tap its way out of its egg. Mack's paintings are a joyful riot of color. The animals' innocent, black, beady eyes are particularly nice, as are the endpapers, which appear to be bury-your-face-in-me close-ups of a chick's yellow fur.

The Bunnies Are Not in Their Beds, by Marisabina Russo (Schwartz & Wade, $15.99; ages 3-7). No, they are assembling train tracks. And after Mama and Daddy squelch that small late-night insurrection, they are up again, running the trains. Then staging a rodeo. And so on, with increasingly outrageous infractions on the part of the junior bunnies and increasingly heroic demonstrations of patience on the part of the senior bunnies, until finally"the bunnies are all fast asleep." This sweet book about a problem every parent faces is a good bet for nights when the whole family has eaten too much Easter chocolate.

That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown, by Cressida Cowell, illustrated by Neal Layton (Hyperion, $16.99; ages 3-7; to be published April 1). This upcoming British title might be a stretch for Easter, but it does co-star a rabbit. Besides, it's an excellent yarn. Young Emily gets along so well with her rabbit, Stanley, that the envious queen sends the armed forces -- service by service, ending with the Special Commandos -- to claim him. Emily indignantly stands up to all this royal and military might, but she does eventually consent to teach the "silly naughty queen" how to make a true friend of a toy. Layton's energetic, scribbly drawings cleverly incorporate photos of real objects -- an elephant, an Amazon rain forest, a rocket. ·

Elizabeth Ward can be reached at warde@washpost.com.