The Best Birthday Ever! By Me (Lana Kitty) by Charise Cragihead Harper follows Lana around as she prepares for and then hosts a birthday party. Through out the book Lana shares some dos and don'ts with her readers.

There are some humorous points, like the advice to not invite bees to the party. And there are some heavy handed bits, like the advice that goodie bags are a must for birthday parties now. The goodie bag is a relatively new invention and I'm not sure it's established well enough yet to warrant such sternness.

The Best Birthday Ever! falls into that weird educational category of books for children. It's basically the picture book equivalent to the adult self-help books. In either form, I find most of them cringe-worthy.

The book ends with a party craft suggestion: birthday crowns. There are some suggested crown themes along with the basic instructions. This page alone sold my daughter on the book as a whole. She had fun after reading the book with putting together her own birthday crown. ( )