My Parents Cancelled My Birthday

Reviewed By  Janet Mawdesley       September 21, 2019

 

Author  Jo Simmons, Illustrations nathan reed

Distributor:      Bloomsbury Childrens Books
ISBN:                 9781526606600
Publisher:         Bloomsbury Childrens Books
Release Date:   September 2019  

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Jo Simons is back with another completely zany story in what looks like becoming a series of books dealing with the real issues of life in a very funny, very heartfelt a way. My Parents Cancelled My Birthday follows on from the immensely popular I Sold My Brother On The Internet, which is terrific as Jonny is now one of Tom’s newest friends.

Tom’s family is what you might call a little bit unusual, as his Dad stays at home trying to write a book, his Mum works long hours, and his Nana believes she can talk with ‘spirits’. Their pet pig Tiny, who is not so tiny anymore, lives on the roof of the garage, at least he did until Tiny fell through the roof, straight onto Nana’s beloved chihuahua, Margarita. Opps!

Meg, Toms sister is also upset, as the tooth fairy has not been to leave the requisite sum of money under her pillow, no matter what she tries. She firmly believes everything that is going wrong in the family is her fault, she must be cursed.

And so, the chaos begins, leading to Tom having his birthday cancelled because no one has time to do anything about it. Now, in Tom’s family every now and again they have a LUCKY birthday which is the day when your age matches your birth date, which is this birthday, the day Tom turns eleven on the 11th August.

Tom has already been making plans about who, what, where and the menu, but it seems all this is not going to happen if his parents and Nana have anything to do with it. So, not be sidelined that easily, Tom recruits Meg to help him make some invitations, bake a special cake and generally help get something organised. After all, Tom reasoned it was HIS Lucky birthday and he was going to have a party to celebrate.

His best friend Harry the Hulk, who comes up with some very daft, but great ideas sometimes, gets into the swing of the event with some very hilarious results.

So, what could possibly go wrong! Well as it turns out a bit does go wrong, but in going wrong so much right happens that Tom’s lucky birthday turns out to be just that, a wonderful, lucky eleventh birthday.

A fun filled story with fantastic cartoon style illustrations from Nathan Reed throughout the pages. My parents Cancelled My Birthday will be a firm favourite with young and older readers.