Margriet Ruurs

Everyone in the world has a birthday. But birthdays are not celebrated in the same way everywhere. Meet Mercedes in Peru, who eats a cake and a purple pudding called mazamorra morada. Ieva in Latvia is raised in the birthday chair, one lift for each year. And rather than celebrating his own birthday, Phúc Khang in Vietnam joins in the festivities during Tet, when everyone in the country turns one year older. Based on interviews with real people, award-winning author Margriet Ruurs tells the unique stories of how seventeen children from all around the globe celebrate a birthday, including how they each say happy birthday in their native language. Following the memorable stories, children are invited to compare their own birthday traditions with the ones they've learned about in the book. Birthdays can be a yearly highlight and a shared experience for children, which make them a perfect subject for introducing different customs around the world. As with all the titles in the bestselling Around the World series, this fascinating book provides cross-curricular applications in language arts, global studies and geography. Ashley Barron's beautiful cut-paper collage artwork adds a contemporary, stylized feel to the pages. Enriching the reading experience are a world map that pinpoints all the locations of the children in the book; a two-page spread containing six activities that facilitate a closer reading of the text; and a glossary containing translations, pronunciations and foreign scripts for the foreign words and phrases in the book.

Join two young children as they begin an adventure through a world of books in this story-within-a-bedtime-story. This metered read-aloud pays homage to classic children's readers of all ages will love searching for characters they recognize from fairy tales and beloved picture books amongst the pages. Spiders weave words and mythical dragons soar as the children travel through magical lands guided by the rhythm and rhyme of acclaimed author Margriet Ruurs. Little ones will want to cuddle closer and settle in for a delightful journey before heading off to sleep themselves.