cover image Birthday Present

Birthday Present

Catherine Stock. Bradbury Press, $11.95 (26pp) ISBN 978-0-02-788401-2

These three pleasant but slight volumes, along with three earlier titles ( Halloween Monster ; Thanksgiving Treat ; Christmas Time ), make up Stock's The Festive Year series. Each book offers a slice of family life at various special times throughout the year. Respectively, the new stories tell of a boy who attends a friend's birthday party and brings her the exact gift she was hoping for; a girl who makes valentines for her family and for the lonely woman who lives next door; and a brother and sister who spend Easter with their mother in a lakeside cabin. Occasional unanticipated twists brighten these innocuous tales, as do Stock's detailed, pastel-hued watercolors. Ages 2-6. (Jan.)