Birthdays Books

I read THE CRYSTAL TREE when I was 9 years old and in the fourth grade. I recently decided to take a trip down memory lane and read it again, and was delighted to see that Amazon.com had it for sale.

CRYSTAL TREE tells the tale of a bunch of little girls living in a farming community in New England. One little girl, Nancy, is staying with friends of her parents while her ill mother recuperates, and the series of books details her adventures there.

These books are great in the Happy Hollisters/Bobsey Twins sense of books. Everyone's happy, no one quarrels or gets their feelings hurt, and all the children and adults are satisfied with the simple things in life. This book details Nancy's reunion with her parents and Nancy and her friends embarking on a sleuthing adventure to determine origins of the house into which Nancy and her parents will move.

The books are fun, happy, and easy to read. I enjoyed my little trip down memory lane immensely, and will share these books with any children who should come into my life.

Another childhood treasure, this is the sequel to "The Golden Name Day" "The Little Silver House" The crystal tree is somehow connected to a former resident of the little silver house and the children spend most of the book trying to figure it out. While not a dramatic mystery this book is a charming representation of life in a small (New Hampshire?) village, with wonderful descriptions of Swedish traditions,small town rituals and farm traditions. It offers a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, but is equally able to stand on its own as a story.

We have a few of these singing books my son loves them but with everyone we have gotten they seem to be getting louder. You can't even read the book until the music stops forget it as a nap time book. I am disapointed as it is far to loud.

My sister in law purchased this book for our babies first birthdays (my daughter is 4 weeks older than her son). The book was an istant hit with both of them and still is 6 months later. I cannot think of many books that are big hits with both of them. My nephew has played with his so much the battery has been replaced. In a tub of books, this is one my daughter will still seek out to look at. I even bought this book as a gag gift for my friend who loves tacky wacky adult birthday gifts such as these.

This book was so evocative of my memories of Fourth of July celebrations in my hometown in Wisconsin. From sparklers to grand fireworks, from wagons to parades, from wiggling jello to yummy picnic fare, this book is populated by a never-ending family--it's wonderful, joyous reading. And the ending gives me shivers each time I read it--thank you Marsha Wilson Chall for putting my memories into words.

As a librarian living and working in the midwest, I was thrilled to get a beautifully illustrated book celebrating July 4th. Not enough is published on this holiday. I was very disappointed, though, to see that the book lacks any depiction of people of color, who certainly inhabit many small towns throughout this country. Shame on all the powers that be who allowed this to go to print with such a narrow perspective. There is no excuse for not making this book truly representative of America, with all its hues, especially in the long shots, where dozens of townsfolk are depicted.

I liked the book, I felt like the first story could really happen to ordinary people. The last two were contrived, but they were still good.

The Birthday Gift- Amanda's husband Jake is absolutely amazing, something she becomes even more aware of when he gives her a surprize birthday gift- her ultimate secret sex fantasy. Luckily, Jake's cousin Patrick is in town and is the perfect man to help fulfill her every desire.

It's in the Cards- When Catherine shops for her sister's birthday card, she stumbles upon a card containing a picture of her dream man. Imagine her surprize when the card magically comes to life.

One Thing to Give- For Lindsay's 30th birthday, she decides to go after exactly what she wants- one night with the sexiest bartender she's ever met. So, what's a girl to do when the guy wants more than she thinks she can give?

Unexpected- Linc's birthday usually passes by without much notice, especially since he prefers to spend it alone at his cabin. The spaceship that crashes in front of his truck was not exactly part of his plan. A curious little alien turns into the woman of his dreams and maybe this year he'll receive the greatest birthday gift- true love.

These 4 "quickies" by Lynn LaFleur are all 5 star stories. I loved each of them, and have moved this author to my must buy list. Each novella in this collection is very satisfying and intensely hot! I am still fairly new to Romantica and Ellora's Cave, but loved every minute of this book. Buy it- You WON'T be disappointed!

This is a book about a first moon birthday, which is a chinese/ korean celebration of a one month birthday. I am interested in seeing stories about cultures other than my own. However, I found that this book was all over the place. In one sentence they would be talking about a tradition or meal, next sentence a complete 180, talking about a completely different topic. There are a lot of analogies in this book, and unusual sentences. This is probably a really sweet book for those you can relate to it, first hand. I do not know much about Chinese/Korean traditions. Sentence Example from book, about grandma making dinner,"Her fingernails scrape off the warts on the wood fungus." I needed a little more explanation of what that means, and so did my 6 year old. She wondered why they were cooking warts, wood, and fungus for a special occasion dinner. I liked the book's theme. I love to see books that bridge the gap and help understand other cultures and traditions.

"Henry's First-Moon Birthday" truly captures a an older sister's enthusiasm in helping her family prepare for her brother's 1-month birthday. Though the customs and the family are very Chinese, the emotions in this book are universal.

My son likes this book a lot, so I decided to look for the others in the series. Why are they so damn expensive? I would NEVER pay this much for a book like this. I got Jack: Happy Birthday at the 99cents store!

Simple but entertaining for my 7 month old. I like the fact that Jack's birthday presents come in different shapes, so as my son gets older it will help him learn his shapes.

Julian Dream Doctor takes place in a modern house with a mom a dad and two children, Julian and Huey. Julian feels as though he should do something extra special for his father's birthday.He goes through all the tricks in the book to get his Dad to tell him what in the world he desires most ,but his dad dodges every punch he throws at him.About a day latter Julians best friend and neighbor comes home from her summer vacation at the beach and joins them for lunch. After lunch Dad decides to go take a nap in the hammock thats when the kids decied to make their move Julian ask "what do you wont most for your birthday?" Dad replies with "2 snakes big one." Julian asks again in shock for his dad has never shown any intrest in snake. Dad answers with " 2 sakes big ones." Later That evening the kids go to the park in search of to snakes. They walk down the parks trail with snake catching sticks, machetti,book on snakes, and old pillow case in hand. In search of the perfect present for dad they run into a huge snak with yellow, black, and red skin with blue fangs. Julian right away that there equiptment wasnt going to be good enough to catch that monster. So they decided to go for the other two small ones in the grass not to far away from the big one. They quickly put both of them in the old pillow case until they got home. About a weak later it was time for dad's party when he gets home they all yell suprise and hand him the box.
Dad begins to ope the box and ...
TO READ MORE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO CHECK IT OUT YOUR SELF !!!!!!!!!

This book is very funny.When I came to chapter 4,I laughed and laughed until my tears came rolling down my face.Whoever heard of someone telling you the meaning of brainwave is invisible waves in the air.Ha! Ha! Ha! This story is about a child named Julian,his brother and his friend named Gloria.Julian's father's birthday is near and Julian tries to figure what his father wants very much for his birthday.When his father says "Two snakes.Big ones.",they really went to the park and tried to catch two snakes.Ha! Ha! Ha! I wouldn't tell you the whole story.read this book and find out.I bet you'll laugh and laugh.This is one of the funniest books I have ever read.

Laurie Lears, Megan's Birthday Tree (Albert Whitman and Co., 2005)

Well-written adoption story about an adopted child's relationship with her birth mother. When Megan was born, her birth mother, Kendra, planted a tree, and Kendra sends Megan a picture of it every year on her birthday. Now Kendra is moving. What's going to happen to the tree, and the ritual that goes with it? Clear, interesting kids' book about open adoption; well worth your time if you're in (or may be in in the future) this situation.***

"Megan's Birthday Tree" is hands-down one of my favorite children's books about open adoption. Some of the things I appreciated as an adoptive parent:

1) The book has an actual plot. Many adoption books for kids focus on explaining adoption. It was refreshing to read a storyline about something other than the birth and/or placement. This is the first adoption book I've read in awhile in which I was actually interested in seeing how it ended.

2) Megan has complex feelings about her adoption appropriate to her age. They are her own feelings and not just a reflection of what adults have told her about her adoption.

3) The adoptive parents play a very supportive, but minor role. The story focuses on Megan and her relationship with her birth mom, Kendra. As an adoptive parent trying to create space for my son and his birth parents to develop their own relationships, I appreciate seeing that modeled.

This is an excellent book for any family involved in an open adoption. Its message that birth parents will always remember the children they placed for adoption could be reassuring for children in closed or semi-open adoptions, as well.

The good things: The art is eye-catching, the colors work well togther, and it looks, well, artsy, which is good, since it's about a boy who wants to spend all his time painting. Morris is supposed to give Benjamin a birthday present, and at first he doesn't want to. As he sees more things he wants to do, the present gets visually bigger as holding onto it is a bigger problem for Morris. The author presents the stress of a young child's birthday party pretty accurately (at least from the observations of this mother).

The bad things: The story is going along well, and then it just ends in what feels like the middle. If you take out the text and look at it, you're left scratching your head and going, "huh?" The action doesn't wind down or come to a conclusion or anything. It's a bit disconcerting. Also, the kids' faces in the pictures don't look like kids (abstracted or otherwise).

Overall the pictures are fun, but I think the text could have been tweaked just a bit to make it better.

Poor Morris can't bear to part with the gift of paints he brought the birthday boy. The tiny package grows and weighs on Morris until he is unable to enjoy the party. When he's finally ready to give it --the birthday boy has gone on to his other presents. Morris opens the paints and soon has the whole party joining in creating fantastical painting on paper and on themselves. The art draws the reader in, it's peculiar, but appealing with lots of different perspectives, the artist has fun with the sizes of things. A lovely book.

When i was a little girl my father used to read this book to me every birthday, im now almost 28 with a daughter of my own and for the last 3 years i've been trying to find this book to read to my daughter, this has been impossible to locate untill now, i have ordered the only used copy on this website and if anyone has any other information on where i can obtain another copy of this book incase my order falls thru PLEASE PLEASE email me. missmel_76@hotmail.com

If you were like Timmy Rabbit, Sara Squirrel or Wille Muskrat you would think that a birthday is someone to play with, and not to celebrate the day you were born. And that's because when Timmy Rabitt asks his mom what a birthday is, she tells him that she is to busy at the moment to tell him what a birthday is. When the book begins, Timmy Rabbitt comes hin his house and finds something smells good, and his mom tells it is Mr. Bear's birthday and she is baking him a cake, Timmy asks his mom what a birthday is, and she tells that she is too busy at the moment. So Timmy decides to find a birthday. Now he will have a hard time trying to find a birthday, since he doesn't know much about a birthday. This book is written in 1981 by Veva Wilcox and the pitcures was done by Lyn McClure Butrick.