  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 08/01/2013 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 - Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 11/01/2013 Haven’t heard of the Birthday Queen? Oh, she is impressive. She lives at the Birthday Palace, getting everything ready for your special day: writing invitations, testing games, frosting cakes. When she snaps her fingers, balloons and decorations fly into place. A Day-Glo-bright spread shows how the queen welcomes the guests (bearing gifts, of course) into the party. Throughout, the beneficiary of all this bountiful birthdayness is left open-ended. But the last page offers a clue. It’s you, the reader—and the birthday queen, with crown removed, is your mom. The Woods winningly expand all the excitement and anticipation that come with birthday parties. Children, streamers, and cakes crowd the pages and spill off in different directions (this is especially true of the cake frosting). The queen, who appears larger than life in most of the action-filled spreads, is at her sweetest alone and revealed on the last page. A fun reminder for kids about who makes the world go round. - Copyright 2013 Booklist. Loading...
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