Every Year on Your Birthday
PreSchool-Grade 1—Another tender offering from the creators ofI Love You Like Crazy Cakes(Little, Brown, 2000). Here, a mother relates her thoughts and emotions on her daughter's birthdays, reflecting on the child's birth in China ("I wasn't there, but I was thinking about you as I waited at home to be your new mother"), recalling a first birthday enjoyed with family and friends, describing how her daughter became an American citizen at age two, and so on, to her fifth birthday, which is spent at a riverbank picnic watching a colorful dragon-boat festival. The text alternates between specifics of each celebration and a scrapbook of the mother's thoughts ("…I think about how quickly your gurgles have turned to giggles. It seems like just yesterday when I met you."). Throughout, the mother preserves her daughter's Chinese heritage and includes multicultural layers in her upbringing. Dyer's delightful watercolor illustrations highlight the most touching points of the story. The birthday cakes reflect the themes and add an element of fun to an otherwise poignant book. The pictures match the pace of the text, getting brighter and busier as the years go by and the child becomes more active. The book ends fittingly with the Chinese character for "family," which "is a synonym for 'home.'" A sweet, gorgeously illustrated book that's perfect for family sharing.—June Wolfe, Bushnell-Sage Library, Sheffield, MACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.