Fun Time! Where's the Party? by Ruth Chan

TO GEORGIE, THERE WAS NOTHING BETTER THAN A PARTY FOR HIS FRIENDS.

PARTIES WITH BALLOONS. PARTIES WITH LIGHTS.

PARTIES WITH CAKE!

Georgie wakes up with an idea for a party for his friends. He sits right down to make the plans.

1. MAKE A LIST.
2. GET CAKE.
3. INVITE FRIENDS.

Georgie makes his list and hits the pastry shop to pick up a large, festive cake. Then he initiates the invitations process.

Feta the dog declines. She's too busy making brine for pickles, she says. Georgie resigns himself to missing his best friend and consoles himself with a pinch of cake from his parcel.

Lester loves to dance, but he can't come because he changing the bulbs in his string of colored lights.

Ferdinand demurs. He just wants to be... alone.

Sneakers is too busy trimming his trees. And given the view of helium balloons seen through his window, it seems Rocco already has a party in progress.

Okay. Georgie moves on to his B list of invitees. One friend offers his itchy ears as an excuse. One pleads that he has socks to fold. One says her shorts are too tight. One implausible friend says the sidewalk is on the wrong side of the street!

Georgie is perturbed. There's a palpable supply of pretty lame excuses here!

But there's nothing for it. Georgie's cake is down to a morsel after he's consoled himself so many times, so he heads home disconsolate. Clearly, all his friends have something better to do.

And so they do, as Georgie the cat discovers when he opens his own front door, in Ruth Chan's new Where's the Party? (Georgie and Friends) (Roaring Brook Press, 2016). Although other authors have utilized the surprise party plot, author-illustrator Chan offers youngsters a truly charming little kitty and a crew of quirky characters with sorry excuses that will have most young readers suspicious and well primed for the final "Surprise!" Chan's little urban neighborhood is picturesque and and her curious critter characters are personable, with an engaging setting, done up in soft pencil, ink, and watercolors that are pleasing to the eye. Says Kirkus Reviews, " ... this uncomplicated feel-good debut is definitely a charmer."