Magnificent Mabel and the Very Bad Birthday Party

Ruth Quayle's Magnificent Mabel and the Very Bad Birthday Party is a laugh-out-loud collection of three short stories for 5 year olds, told by a girl with VERY firm views on what's fair.

What happens

Mabel knows exactly how the world should work. Birthdays should come sooner. Packed lunches should have chocolate in them. Holidays should be relaxing. Sadly, the grown-ups in her life don't always agree!

In the first story, Mabel decides she doesn't want a big party this year. Then Harry Cox tells her you only get presents if you have one. There are twenty-eight other people in Class One, and twenty-eight presents is a lot. So the party is back on. Of course Harry Cox turns up dressed as a wolf too, and things go downhill from there.

In the second, Mabel's cheese sandwiches and "measly apple" can't compete with Elsa Kavinsky's chocolate bar. After a class film about hungry lions, Mabel decides she is DESPERATE. Her teacher, Mr Messenger, has a very clever answer to that one.

In the third, a family holiday turns out to be nothing but hard work (unpacking, laying the table, rescuing roughly 987,000 ants). Luckily there's an ice cream shop that needs a helper.

The joy of these is Mabel's voice. She's always sure she's in the right, and your reader will be very sure she isn't. Kids will giggle at the way she explains everything away. Grown-ups will enjoy the looks Mum and Dad swap over her head.

It's worth knowing that Mabel isn't exactly a role model! She pinches a chocolate bar, yanks a wolf's tail and opens all her presents after being told to wait. But she always gets found out, and that's half the fun.

Each story stands on its own and they're short enough for one bedtime each. This is the sixth Mabel book, but she introduces herself so well you'd never know.

What to read next

If your reader loves a narrator who's never, ever to blame, try Daisy and the Trouble with Life next. Daisy is grounded, and she's quite sure it's all her mum's fault.