Birthdays Books

Bella's Chocolate Surprise is not an ordinary softcover picturebook - it's an introduction to how chocolate is made, as well as the concept of "fair trade" and why it is so important. A young girl named Bella loves chocolate; curious to learn more about it, she uses a magical pendant to call her friend, a beautiful and magical Quetzal bird. The Quetzal bird takes her to visit the Ghana countryside in West Africa, where she helps the local children harvest chocolate - collecting fruit, opening its pods, scooping out the pulp, gathering the cocoa beans, leaving them covered with banana leaves for a week, finally drying them in the sun and packing them in sacks. A child tells her, "The money our community gets from the Fair Trade Company for the cocoa beans pays for all our food, school fees and medical supplies for a whole year." Most shocking of all, she learns the people who harvest cocoa beans don't eat chocolate - it's too expensive! A heartwarming story about learning to appreciate the simple joy of a sweet taste all too easily taken for granted, as well as the power that fair trade has to make everyone's lives better.

These are great little books that are not only full of lots of great information but great to share. Learn what your astrological sun signs are, what your personal tarot card is, what your Chinese astrological symbol is, what your lucky stone is, what your lucky number is and your magical food. Lots of fun and highly recommended.

November 23 is an amazing birthday. I've had it my entire life and continue to enjoy it. But I'm afraid this reveals nothing about me...

This is the perfect little item to toss in with a birthday gift! There's a different one for every day of the year -- check it out here on Amazon!

Thoughtful and personal -- this is definitely an appreciated gift.

The women of the French Surrealist movement are largely forgotten or treated as appendages to their male counterparts. In Birthday, Dorothea Tanning writes herself and, by relation, other women surrealists of the time, including Leonora Carrington, into a fullness of life apart from the men. Dorothea Tanning was a young painter in New York City in the 1930's, where she seduced or is seduced by the expatriated Max Ernst over a game of chess. Ernst offers her guidance and the leverage of his name and reputation in artistic circles, but Dorothea develops her own disturbing surrealist land/dreamscapes in which to allow the viewer to wander. Both Dorothea Tanning and Leonora Carrington are alive and creating art today, although neither receives the attention she deserves. Along with Birthday, I'd recommend any of Leonora Carrington's prose (Down Below, The Seventh Horse, and The Hearing Trumpet among them), as well as the fine book of prints, Women Artists And The Surrealist Movement, which goes a long way toward uncovering the talents of the many women in Surrealism.

As an undergraduate at UCLA, I read and re-read Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, reveling in the antics of the boozing, brawling, working-class character Arthur Seaton. However, as years passed (and I got my Ph.D., married, bought a house and had a kid), I found it difficult to identify with the literary hero of my young adulthood.

Birthday has made Arthur Seaton alive and relevant to me again. What a joy to catch up with Arthur over 40 literary years later and see how an "angry young man" ages gracefully... sort of . Arthur is now a responsible parent, loving husband to a terminally-ill wife, and tender of a vegetable garden in his own home. Yet, he is the same old Arthur: telling outrageous stories, complaining about the uselessness of the government, and half-threatening to kill a young co-worker for wasting food (remember, Arthur Seaton grew up in a war-deprived England).

Birthday alludes to many moments from Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Sometimes, the results are hilarious: A 60-year-old Arthur, for example, finds himself counseling a spitting-image son who has visions of blowing up Parliament and telling his boss off -- the same fantasies Arthur professed as a young man. Often, the past references are touching. See the recently-widowed Arthur frolic with his grandson (and re-engage in life) the way he used to with his young nephew back in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

Fans of Saturday Night beware: much of Birthday focuses on Arthur's brother Brian and his weary struggle with existential issues and regret. The subplots with Arthur, however, really crackle with energy and good humor. I felt great after reading this book. If Arthur Seaton can remain vital through older adulthood, then maybe so can I. Cheers, Arthur!

I have purchased cards from Hallmark Business Expressions in the past, and I can honestly say, they are the best. All of my customers comment on how beautiful the cards I send are. I will always buy Hallmark Business Expressions cards.

This is a great present for any child up to 8 having a birthday. Also, as a kindergarten teacher it's one I'm going to keep in my classroom. This author's DINNER AT THE PANDA PALACE has been a big hit year after year and I know this new book will keep my kids listening too. It's got rhyming riddles with turn-the-page answers. I love the book's friendship theme and the ending: "At the Palace we know / How special you are / That's why on your birthday / You are the.... STAR!" Give a birthday child a hat with a gold star and watch that child shine. Great book! I hope the author will write more Panda Palace stories.

This book has been well-loved my by oldest, as well as my toddler twins. It's just the right size for their little hands and the pictures are bright and cute. (A warning to "clown-o-phobes": there is a clown picture and it is a little freaky looking, but my kids haven't seemed to notice). Each page is one word and your toddler will delight in "reading" it to himself/herself. It's so cute to see my 20-month olds "reading" to themselves.

I just wish it were still in print!

I chose this perpetual calendar book to record birthdays of friends and family because of its reasonable price. Much to my delight, the description given does not do it justice. This is a publication of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it is filled with color photos of pieces from the museum's collections. It also "contain[s] birthdays of people celebrated in art, with ample space to record your favorite birthdays" as described on the title page. The fine quality is no less than you would expect from the Met.