Your Birthday Was the Best!

December 20, 2021
A friendly-faced cockroach with long, graceful antennae has a marvelous time at a child’s birthday party in this gross-out comedy. “I joined in all the party games,” the narrating insect explains, as Sala (Arno and His Horse) draws human kids of various skin tones bashing a piñata—and the cockroach holding a tiny stick, swiping gamely from a tree limb. Though readers begin to suspect that the insect isn’t an invited guest, that doesn’t bother the optimistic cockroach. It’s so wiped out by its exertions, in fact, that it falls asleep on the birthday cake, a mint-green affair decorated with sprinkles and cherries. “You were so excited to see me,” the cockroach recalls about its cake-top discovery, “You screamed.” Sala draws a tight, horror movie–style close-up of the light-skinned child bellowing before a parent brings out the vacuum cleaner, and the plot thickens. Hutchings (Dragon!) reveals that far from being repulsed, the cockroach is charmed by what’s on offer inside the vacuum in a book highlighting a character whose cheer is indomitable despite disadvantages of species and reputation. Ages 3–7.

February 1, 2022
Grades K-2 The book opens with a blond boy's birthday party in full swing. There are snacks, balloons, a trampoline, and kids everywhere. It is, in short, a party at its best. Even the story's narrator--a cockroach who fell asleep on the cake--agrees! While a cockroach may be an unlikely (and, some might say, completely unwelcome) narrator for a children's picture book, it's certainly original, as is the choice of using a second-person narrative style. By using the cockroach's perspective, humor runs through the book as the bug misunderstands the pandemonium his presence unleashes among the guests, interpreting screams of terror for cries of excitement. Even getting sucked into a vacuum doesn't dampen the cockroach's enthusiasm, as the machine's belly contains a delicious buffet of hairy cheese, cat poo, and toenails, as well as a few of his relatives. It takes a talented artist to make a cockroach cute and cuddly, but Sala pulls it off with her uber-adorable art style, cleverly incorporating jokes that play off the minimal text and balancing the tale's dark humor.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2022

K-Gr 2-Move over, Gregor Samsa; here's another cockroach poised for immortality! Hutchings voices a clueless, four-inch crawler with hairy legs, long antennae, huge eyes, and a big smile, who, seeing a party starting, joins in unnoticed until he is discovered snoozing on the cake. He believes the kids' screams show their joyful excitement to see him. Dad comes to the rescue with a much-feared vacuum that turns out to be a source of delicious food (not for the squeamish) within, and the relentlessly upbeat roach is subsequently reunited with lost family members in the garbage bin. He's happy to see them but eagerly returns to the festivities ("I knew you'd miss me") where-rinse and repeat. Sala's perfect, just-realistic-enough, bug's-eye illustrations underscore the deadpan gulf between the narrator's and the humans' perspectives. VERDICT Many young readers will find this side-splitting, and adults should get hold of their weak stomachs and prepare for multiple joyous readings.-Patricia D. Lothrop

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.