K-Gr 2—When her birthday is more than five months away, a six-year-old girl starts planning her party. She'll make her own invitations and blow up 9000 pink balloons. There will be cake and ice cream galore. As the countdown continues, her imagination goes into high gear, and she adds a magician named Merlin. Girl guests will get real tiaras and boys will get clown hats with bells. Dad will build a castle complete with towers and a moat. There will be elephant rides and a Ferris wheel. The President of the U.S. and the Queen of England will send cards. A squadron of fighter jets will fly overhead in formation. Finally there will be a parade and fireworks. When the big day finally arrives, there is a normal party with her family and friends, a couple of balloons, ice cream, and a cake with seven candles. "I'm having the best birthday party ever. Just like I planned." And then she starts the new countdown and plan for next year. The cartoonlike watercolor illustrations are predominantly pink and exuberant. There is a lot to look at as the girl's flight of fancy gets more and more involved, including party-favor hamsters parachuting out of an airplane and Grandma scuba diving in the moat, about to come face-to-face with a dragon. Kids will enjoy this one.—Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI
Although it's five months away, a girl starts planning her birthday party, which she would like to include thousands of balloons, fifty-seven guests, etc. In a refreshingly down-to-earth turn, she isn't disappointed (hence readers won't be either) when her party resembles that of a typical middle-class child. Pham's illustrations make the real party look just as much fun as the fantasy version.
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