Author/Illustrator: Katy Hudson
Genre: Picture Book
Prime Audience: Children Celebrating a Birthday
Publisher: Capstone Editions
Publication Year: 2020
When it's your birthday, the centerpiece of the celebration is the cake, and for Beaver, a perfectionist, his birthday cake is going to be perfect! That is, until his friends Rabbit, Squirrel, Tortoise, and Bird decide to help (which good friends should, right?) and don't quite follow Beaver's detailed recipe. When they're finished with Beaver's cake, they're ready to celebrate— except for Beaver, who is appalled with what they've created! So, he makes his own cake, by himself, and when it's finished and perfect, as he planned it to be, he's sad because has no one to celebrate with. But Rabbit, Squirrel, Tortoise, and Bird show themselves to be true friends and comfort Beaver in his hour of epiphany.
Katy Hudson's The Perfect Birthday Recipe, the fourth in the set about Beaver and his friends, is a celebration of friendship. The narrative is funny, serious, sad, and joyful, a balance that makes it rich as Beaver's recipe and his variety of friends. Hudson's illustrations, from the super-detailed endpapers to the sparse depictions of energetic moments in the narrative, are a treat for the reader and another form of balance in the book. Readers who celebrate with Beaver and his friends will enjoy Beaver's birthday with them!
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