Angelina's Birthday Surprise (Angelina Ballerina)

Features

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 25 pages
• Published by: Clarkson Potter; First American Edition edition September 27, 1989
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0517573253
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0517573259
• Book Dimensions: 10.5 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Weighs: 13 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
Holabird and Craig first introduced the effervescent Angelina in Angelina Ballerina. In their seventh Angelina book, the intrepid mouse and her friend Alice are riding their bikes home from a trip to the store when Angelina hits a big rock and tumbles headfirst over the handlebars. Although Angelina is only slightly hurt, her bike is damaged beyond repair. At Angelina's extravagant birthday party--winningly depicted in Craig's delicately defined watercolors--the little mouse is quite sad because she doesn't get a new bike, but her parents have a surprise in store. Unlike many birthday books, Holabird's plot takes several twists and turns; by keeping the story focused on the loss of the bike, rather than the party, she keeps the reader guessing until almost the last page. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-- While bicycle riding with her friend Alice, Angelina has an accident, and her bicycle is ruined. The two little mice do chores for family and neighbors to help earn money for a new one. They are discouraged when they compare their earnings to the cost of the gorgeous red bike in the shop, but all ends well when Angelina is given her heart's desire as a birthday surprise. The pastel illustrations lovingly create in detail a cozy, quaint mouse world. Craig uses borders in some pictures and opens up other scenes to cover the page. In the illustration of the accident, the little mouse is shown flying all the way across the page before landing at the side of the road. Text and illustrations work together gorgeously to create a book full of warmth and charm. --Jane Gardner Connor, formerly at South Carolina State Lib . , Columbia
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reader Reviews
You can purchase this identical book NEW ! It has been retitled "Angelina's Birthday". The two books are identical in every way except the title! Don't purchase both (like I did) thinking you're going to get two different stories! It is a cute book, with another nice moral: Angelina has a bicycling accident which ruins her old bike, then spends the week working to earn money to purchase a new one. All her friends and family see how hard she has worked and pitch in to buy the bike and give it to her as a birthday surprise.