The Birthday Queen

PreS-Gr 2—Somewhere, in a colorful palace crowned with a star and ringed with candles, the Birthday Queen is busy preparing a party. She tastes cakes, practices games, and auditions clowns. She decorates with three snaps of her fingers. Unfortunately, what could have been a celebration of the magic of birthdays is flawed by a second-person narration that might be confusing to young listeners and an ending that does not jibe with the fantastical beginning. Readers are given no hints in either text or illustrations to indicate that the Birthday Queen is anything but a manic monarch, though at the end it is revealed that she is actually the birthday child's mother. Only the final page hints that the magic was only in the child's head, or perhaps the mother's. The bright oil paintings, while lively and colorful, border on garish with grinning characters who have green and purple shadows around their eyes. This brightly illustrated, slight salute to party planning ends up missing the mark.—Martha Link Yesowitch, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC