Odd Bird Bash: Happy Birdday, Tacky! by Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger

FOR WEEKS GOODLY, LOVELY, ANGEL, NEATLY, AND PERFECT HAD BEEN PLANNING TACKY'S BIRDDAY.

After all, as Nice Icy Land's only official Odd Bird, Tacky's hatchday has to be as unique as he is. There's the usual birthday card writing, present picking, and fancy wrapping, keeping all the prep under wraps, of course, because this birdday has to be a big surprise.

The Nice Icy Land plans are finally set and Tacky's perniciously persnickety penguin pals go through their list:

CARDS? (Check)

SONGS? (Check)

PRESENTS? (Check)

FISHY ICE CREAM? (Check)

CAKE? (Check)

SURPRISE ENTERTAINMENT? (Check)

The surprise entertainment surprises even Tacky.  It's the divine diva Tinklewebs the Dance Queen, all the way from Iglooslavia!

"I VANT TO PERFORM FOR YOU A DENZ PEEZ!"

But the surprise entertainment turns into a dance disaster, as Ms. Tinklewebs turns her ankle (or whatever penguins have):

"MINE WEBBY! MINE BEAUDIFOOL LEFT WEBBY IS INJURED! I SHALL NEVER DENZ AGAIN! MINE CAREER IS KAPUTED! she laments loudly.

"HOW IMPERFECT," Goodly looked at Angel.

"WHAT TO DO NOW?"

But it's that odd bird Tacky whose silly flapwaddle dance keeps his own birthday festivities in Helen Lester's latest Tacky the Penguin tale, Happy Birdday, Tacky! (Tacky the Penguin) (Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). For super silliness on ice you can't beat Tacky, that odd bird set down amongst a group of super up-tight buddies, a groovy penguin whose job it seems is to keep things cool in Nice Icy Land.  Penguins are currently hot properties, quite popular in picture book land, but author Lester and illustrator Munsinger remain the queens of the ice!