Birthdays Books

"The festivities to mark July Fourth begin at a gentle pace in the small towns and cities along the coast of upper New England. The area is steeped in history, and many of its celebrations are rooted in tradition..."

The story begins with flags and ends with fireworks. This is a story in photographs. Each page of photographs is illustrated with stories of what is going on in New England on the Fourth of July.

"July Fourth is a unique time for American. Solemn memories of the past and deeply held convictions about the spirit of our country mix with the ingredients of a grand party."

First people come together for an early morning breakfast, then they watch parades and go outside and have fun. Kids eat strawberry-rhubarb pie and lobster. Some of the visitors go to the beach and others go to the grounds of Strawbery Banke, in Portsmouth where there is a living museum that shows what life was like during the Revolutionary War era. Here you can see mock battles.

Further up the coast, the seafaring traditions are celebrated. In the early evening young and old gather for contra dancing and as the day gives way to night everyone anticipates the firework displays.

The firework pictures are a fitting close to America's birthday party.

~The Rebecca Review

This book has the wonderful illustrations that are always in Cyndy Szekeres books, but the story itself left alot to be desired.

My son age 8 enjoys the Ameldia Bedelia book series. Since this was written by the same arthor we thought we might enjoy it. This was not funny at all. It's a about an old lady who knows there is a special day but can't remmeber why it's special. She starts gettting ready for it and it turm out that is day is really her birthday. A fairly cute story but not what we expected from Peggy Parrish.

This is an absorbing read of an Onnasis type tycoon;his rise to riches;the myths and obsessions that made up his life, all related and revealed over the course of a birthday party arranged for his daughter where the aim is to get her to abort the baby she is expecting;fathered by her fathers biographer.

Karnezis is an excellent writer-'Little Infamies' and 'The Maze' confirm this- and 'The Birthday Party' is a comfortable and enjoyable read. Karnezis develops each character introduced by scripting a history pregnant with anecdotes. It is a style obviously inspired by Garcia Marquez's great novels-'One Hundred Years of Solitude' and 'Love in the Time of Cholera'-but Karnezis seems too conscious of wanting to evade criticisms of plagiarizing Marquez's style, and falls short of all the magical realism that would have made this good novel possibly great.
He also ends up patronizing the reader on occassion-perhaps in order to avoid being labeled esoteric?-there's really no need to explain what the Stockholm effect is, more so when it stiffles a good line. (If need be, add annotations at the end)
I feel that this just indicates that Karnezis is still developing his technique and obvious talents, and it shouldn't stop people moving into his circle of readership.
An enjoyable book all said.

I recently discovered Joyce Livingston's writings and have fallen in love with everything I have read. This book was very touching, with good interaction between characters. However, the ending was very disappointing and dissatisfying. If not for this fact, I would have rated it a 5.

There's nothing here that can't be accomplished by showing your child the various coins and describing their values. This transparent and heavy-handed story won't entertain today's savvy child, who can smell a "learning opportunity" from a mile away. Dullsville. My 5 year old son loves the topic of money, and he thought this was a snoozer. I'll be very surprised, if he asks to hear it again.

The ultimate Dilbert calendar would combine this product with a daily dose of Dilbert. For a wall calendar this one is bright and large enough to note important dates. I need more Dilbert though like the daily desk calendar!

"The Drowned Son" is a snapshot of a pebble on the beach of life, with all the inherent corniness the phrase entails: Hutchinson's son dies in October in an accident on a fishing boat. The boy had been looking for a direction for his life and sought adventure in Alaska, where he met his death. A few months later, the boat's skipper comes to meet the parents and tells the story of the accident. Through helping the parents understand their son, what made him, and what drove him, the skipper helps them face their conflict and find closure.

It has interesting facts but I was hoping for simple facts to share with my science class. It asks questions but doesn't always answer them. It will just explain how the answer could be one way or another. I wouldn't suggest it as a science teacher.

I am always disappointed in the Bob the Builder books. I never find them to be of the same quality as the videos. The illustrations aren't very interesting. This book is about Bob's birthday and I think it would be more exciting for my boys if there were more truck action in it. This book is in Spansih. It is entirely soft cover so not very durable. Ours was destroyed in less than a month.