Happy Birdday, Tacky!

The penguins of Nice Icy Land are hard at work, preparing the "Perfect Party for Tacky the Penguin's Birdday." But when things don't go according to plan -- and with odd bird Tacky, you really should expect the unexpected -- Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect are miffed. "How IMPERFECT can a Perfect Party get?" They manage to keep their collective cool during Tacky's many oblivious faux pas, including mistaking fishy ice-cream cones for birdday hats and passing the cake like a football. His well-mannered friends gamely soldier on, pinning their hopes on the "surprise entertainment," Twinklewebs the Iglooslavian Dance Queen. Alas, a perfect ending just isn't in the birdday cards. Diva Twinklewebs is injured during her performance, melodramatically proclaiming, "I shall never denz again." The perfectionist birds are not prepared to deal with this. But carefree Tacky is…inadvertently. His innocent dancing antics save the day, turning everyone's mood from despair to delight. Lester and Munsinger's lovable characters are portrayed as warmly as Antarctic animals could be; Munsinger's appealing illustrations celebrate the humor in Lester's lively text. If your Perfect Party is sliding headlong into disaster, what do you have to lose? Go ahead, dance your heart out. kitty flynn