The Meanest Birthday Girl

The Meanest Birthday Girl
By Josh Schneider
Clarion Books, 2013. 48 pages. Easy reader.

It's Dana's birthday, and she's going to do whatever she wants. This terrible redhead calls her classmates names, gifts them with pinches, and generally wreaks havoc just because it is her birthday. At the end of her glorious day, her classmate Anthony (whom she christened "Ickaborse") brings her one last gift: A giant white elephant. Dana then has to take care of this enormous elephant, with its terrible snoring and huge appetite. For a short while, it seems that this gift will teach her some humility and patience, but in the end...Dana is Dana. The little stinker regifts the white elephant to her foe, Gertrude. Josh Schneider (Tales for Very Picky Eaters) has created a laugh-out-loud short chapter book that will have kids rolling. Dana, for all her pink clothes and hairbows, is more Veruca Salt than Fancy Nancy- but a hysterical character nonetheless.

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