The Worst Birthday Ever by Joanna Nadin

The Worst Birthday Ever by Joanna Nadin

By Joanna Nadin (author) , Rikin Parekh (illustrator) Part of the Disaster Diaries series

"Birthday party palavers abound in a character-driven comic caper that’s ideal for newly-independent readers."

Paperback In Stock £6.99 £6.29

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The Worst Birthday Ever , the first book in Joanna Nadin’s funny, family-centred Disaster Diaries series, is driven by the energetic, free-flowing narrative of almost-eight-year-old Daffodil — a girl who’s as cheery as her name, and chockful of “bobby dazzlers” i.e. in her words, “brilliant ideas”. Trouble is, Daffodil is also very prone to disaster, usually as a result of thinking up said bobby dazzlers!

Presented as Daffodil’s diary, readers of The Worst Birthday Ever are given engagingly- amusing insights into the inner workings of her mind, with lots of funny detail on her friends, family and deepest thoughts. For example, as the smallest person in her household, she often feels “UTTERLY forgotten”, but at the same time, she’s the kind of get-things-done girl who can’t help but make a BIG impression.

In this case, Daffodil’s dreams of having a “SUPREME and UNBEATABLE” birthday party go somewhat awry in ways no one could have imagined!

Ideal for newly confident readers with a thirst for funny character-based fiction, and enlivened by Rikin Parekh’s quirkily comic illustrations, The Worst Birthday Ever is a feast of fun, friendship, family and madcap antics.

Daffodil Patterson is a small girl with BIG plans - it's really not her fault that they always seem to go wrong … The start of a brilliantly funny new series for young readers, from the author and illustrator of The Worst Class in the World, shortlisted for the Laugh out Loud Book Awards 2024.

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Daffodil Patterson is a small girl with BIG plans - it's really not her fault that they always seem to go wrong … The start of a brilliantly funny new series for young readers, from the author and illustrator of The Worst Class in the World , shortlisted for the Laugh out Loud Book Awards 2024.

Soon-to-be eight-year-old Daffodil likes the dictionary, the middle bit in custard cream biscuits, and thinking BIG. She does NOT like her cousin Hugo Patterson-Dent, who has ten more gold stars than she does; the biscuit bit of custard creams (but that's OK because her friend Nirmal-Next-Door eats that); or any sort of catastrophe. The trouble is that somehow Daffodil's ambitious plans tend to go pear-shaped …

Daffodil is hoping for the Best Birthday Party EVER. But she hasn't reckoned on Colin, the greyhound with an appetite for everything except dog food. Or the fact that her brother's band Hairy Wasp would break up before they could provide the entertainment. Or the total lack of guests.

Luckily, Daffodil has the knack of looking on the bright side and is soon planning her next absolute bobby-dazzler of an idea!

'I love this... A funny chaotic diary. One of those delightful books both my nine year old and my six year old enjoy. A delight to read aloud.' - Sally Nicholls, award-winning author of Ways to Live Forever

Joanna Nadin is a winner of the Fantastic Book Award, the Surrey Book Award, Blue Peter 'Book of the Month' and Radio 4 Open Book 'Book of the Year'. She has been shortlisted for the Booktrust Best Book Award and Queen of Teen, and Spies, Dad, Big Lauren and Me was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club. In 2011, Penny Dreadful is a Magnet for Disaster was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Joe All Alone was nominated for the 2016 C ILIP C arnegie Medal. She writes the Flying Fergus series with Sir Chris Hoy. Joanna previously worked as a policy writer for the Labour Party and a special adviser to the Prime Minister. She continues to freelance as a speechwriter and editor, and lectures in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

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I really enjoyed this book and managed to read it all on holiday. It made me laugh and think of some people that I know

I really enjoyed this book and read it on my holiday. I liked it because it’s about a girl who is just slightly younger than me and her birthday. It was really funny as she has a dog and the dog was really silly and reminded me of my dog. She had a birthday cake which sounded really weird but she really liked it. The book was all about her birthday and how everything went wrong.... Read Full Review

Really good book, funny, makes you laugh and couldn't put it down.

I really liked this book, I really enjoyed how it made me laugh. It's about a young girl and it is her birthday, she has a silly dog which makes me laugh. She had a very strange birthday cake which to me sounded awful.... Read Full Review

Perfectly birthday craziness!

I liked this book. My favourite character was Colin the dog because he was funny particularly when he was sick with the frog, ballerina with no leg and the wizard card. I liked it when dad said Bobby Dazzler. The pictures were good to show you other bits of the book and I liked that some of the important words on the page were in bold and darker in colour. I liked that each chapter was a day of the week so you know what is happening in Daffodil's life. I didn’t like the part where Gran got angry because I thought it was kind of scary.... Read Full Review

Daffodil Patterson is a small girl with BIG plans - it's really not her fault that they always seem to go wrong … The start of a brilliantly funny new series for young readers, from the author and illustrator of The Worst Class in the World, shortlisted for the Laugh out Loud Book Awards 2024.Soon-to-be eight-year-old Daffodil likes the dictionary, the middle bit in custard cream biscuits, and thinking BIG. She does NOT like her cousin Hugo Patterson-Dent, who has ten more gold stars than she does; the biscuit bit of custard creams (but that's OK because her friend Nirmal-Next-Door eats that); or any sort of catastrophe.

The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed The Worst Birthday Ever and determined it is suitable for children aged 7-8 years old

The Worst Birthday Ever features in the following genres: Featured Books for 7+ readers, Recommendations, Adventure Stories, Stories about Family and Friends, Funny, The Natural World, Pets, Children’s / Teenage: Chapter books (transitional storybooks), Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Children’s: picture books, activity books, early learning concepts, Children’s / Teenage: General interest

Paperback. £6.29, down from the £6.99 cover price. In Stock.

The Worst Birthday Ever was written by Joanna Nadin and published by Bloomsbury Children's Books an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)

The Worst Birthday Ever has 162 pages

Yes it is part of Disaster Diaries series

£6.29, reduced from £6.99. In Stock.

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