Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* In an infectious, bouncy rhythm, Fogliano playfully captures the antsy excitement for birthdays in a pitch-perfect kid voice. In between a refrain of When's my birthday? / Where's my birthday? / How many days until / my birthday? Fogliano's verses cover food and presents, who to invite, and, of course, the all-important cake. Robinson's thickly painted collage illustrations feature cheery children and friendly creatures in birthday hats, with always happy faces enjoying the delights described in Fogliano's lines. Amid all the anticipation and happy planning, the text takes a realistically worried turn when the waiting seems so endless that the narrator wonders whether he or she will have a birthday at all. Luckily, after a near-sleepless night, the day finally arrives: It's the daytime! / Here's my birthday! / Happy happy! / Hee! Hee! Hee! Robinson's signature style bold collages depicting kids and animals in blocky shapes is the ideal vehicle for Fogliano's frolicsome text, and the two together evoke a quintessentially childlike glee, which adults will recognize and little ones will revel in. There might be a more perfect picture book about birthdays out there, but you'd be hard-pressed to find it.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Birthdays are hard to wait for, but now there's a book to read while counting down the days. Fogliano (Old Dog Baby Baby) starts with a stomping beat ("When's my birthday?/ where's my birthday?/ how many days until my birthday?") and understands that, for young birthday hopefuls, excitement means movement: "Will we dance around and round?/ will we jump and jump and jump?" Using simple cutout forms, Caldecott Honor artist Robinson (Last Stop on Market Street) shows children with varied hair and skin colors indulging in birthday fantasies. One skates on a gigantic cake (would that be icing skating?), another contemplates an enormous gift, still another surveys a table laden with food. Robinson's collages play with scale, contrasting giant birthday props with a spread of insects and a snail celebrating the occasion atop a dandelion-every living thing has a birthday. As the special day approaches, one child vows to stay up all night: "In the morning it's my birthday!/ I'm not sleeping till my birthday." (She falls asleep, of course.) Fogliano captures with uncanny skill a child's voice, enthusiasm, and spontaneity. Ages 3-6. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-An exuberant ode to children's anticipation for the most special day each year: their birthday. Fogliano's insistent verse wastes no time and doesn't even stop for traditional capitalization-just like the young narrators, who want to know, "when's my birthday?/where's my birthday?/how many days until/my birthday?" They continue breathlessly, wondering if they will "sing so happy happy?" on the big day. The exaggerated excitement is echoed in Robinson's clever use of scale, as in a spread featuring a gigantic present tied with white twine. A little girl reaches up to pull the string, dwarfed by its size. The long and tall trim size is also ideal for displaying a towering, swimming pool-size birthday cake so large that the young birthday boy needs a ladder to reach the candles. A muted palette of slate blue, mustard yellow, forest green, and burnt sienna, sometimes appearing on a rich black background, reflects the festive tone of the text without tipping over into what could be-in the hands of a less skilled poet and artist-overwhelming or obnoxious in its fervor. Instead, readers will appreciate and immediately recognize the joyful expectancy. VERDICT Buoyant and perfectly childlike, meant to be read aloud with gusto and a keen sense of urgency. A first purchase for any library, and a ready-made gift for home collections.-Kiera Parrott, School Library Journal © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A picture book to celebrate.Fogliano is at her best here, with text reminiscent of Charlotte Zolotow's, Margaret Wise Brown's, and Ruth Krauss' writing. Her spare, singsong verse pairs perfectly with Robinson's nave style expressed in joyful, retro, multimedia collage. The striking, narrow portrait layout recalls Marc Simont's Caldecott-winning A Tree Is Nice, but this picture book is much more than nice. It's splendid. Illustrations feature an ever shifting multiracial cast of children, not to mention cakes, balloons, wrapped gifts, and markers of changing seasons, to accompany and expand upon the text. Whimsical details, such as the inclusion of a giraffe and a sloth as party guests in the illustrations, add levity and surprise. The repeated refrain"when's my birthday? / where's my birthday? / how many days until / my birthday?"lends cohesion to the book despite the lack of a linear textual narrative. One little girl with straight black hair, olive skin, and large dark eyes (who looks a bit like Robinson's protagonist from The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade, written by Justin Roberts, 2014) appears multiple times, signaling that she is the one anticipating her birthday. The antepenultimate spread shows her losing a fight against sleep as she waits for her birthday to arrive the next morning, and the closing page turns when the big day arrives are "happy happy!" indeed. A gift of a picture book that's at once nostalgic and fresh. (Picture book. 2-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
