Chan­nah Lieber­man has writ­ten two books, one for boys (illus­trat­ed in blue) and one for girls (illus­trat­ed in pink) about the uni­ver­sal expe­ri­ence of wait­ing for an excit­ing birth­day cel­e­bra­tion. She uses a singsong rhyme to tell the sto­ry of a young child hop­ing for presents and a par­ty. The child is afraid that every­one has for­got­ten his or her birth­day, so decides to plan his or her own cel­e­bra­tion. Of course, the child dis­cov­ers that every­one did remem­ber the impor­tant day with a sur­prise par­ty. Jew­ish val­ues are shov­eled into the sto­ry when the chil­dren sing brachas, give tzeda­ka, sing tehilim, and plan to do a mitz­vah. The illus­tra­tions are light and rem­i­nis­cent of ear­ly 1950’s sto­ries like Dick and Jane in their whole­some­ness. These two books are rec­om­mend­ed as option­al pur­chas­es for ear­ly child­hood class­es, espe­cial­ly in an Ortho­dox school. Ages 4 – 6.