Happy Birthday, Here I Come!

PreS-Gr 1–This rhyming picture book about a young child’s birthday shares many of the classic American trends for birthday parties, including special breakfasts, bringing cupcakes to share at school, backyard relay races, hitting piñatas, and, finally, opening presents. The gentle rhymes will ring true for any child anticipating a birthday, or for new parents of young kids who might want to plan their own. The most refreshing section of this book is the few pages at the end noting different birthday traditions around the world, such as fairy bread in Australia, long noodles in China, and thousand-layer cakes in Chile. Readers might be a little confused by the changing protagonist—each page features a different birthday child, even though the story arc flows chronologically from breakfast to post-party. The ethnicity and gender of the birthday child changes with each scene to reflect the diversity of children in the United States, even though it doesn’t quite reflect the true diversity of birthday experiences that contemporary children might enjoy. This book might set up heightened expectations for a child’s birthday celebrations, and librarians should note the page of included stickers at the end.