Another book from the shelves

On the shelves

Gone. I think Temple Cloud was reading some of these, but I don't know which ones.

I picked this up with a group of other David Baddiel books, but by the time I was halfway through this one, my interest had waned. Like most of this series, this starts with a birthday party - but unlike most, birthdays are the entire theme, as the main character, Sam, enjoys his tenth birthday party so much that he wishes to have a birthday every day.

I expected that this would mean he is one year older every day - so that after making his wish on Saturday, he would be a teenager by Tuesday, an adult by the following Sunday, middle-aged after a month, growing old after two months, and desperate to reverse the spell before he dies or gets dementia. I think this could have been an interesting story.

Instead, his wish simply means that everyone treats him as if it is his birthday every day, so that he becomes steadily more spoilt and obnoxious and his parents are struggling to come up with different party themes and afford to buy him all the presents he demands on a daily basis. To make it worse, the spell affects not just his family but EVERYONE - so that even when Sam's grandfather (also named Sam) goes missing, the police are too busy making a birthday present for young Sam to investigate what has happened to old Sam.

In the meantime, Sam makes a friend whose life is worlds away from his and whose problems put his in perspective: Zada, a young refugee and ace skateboarder. Again, it would have been interesting if we had seen more of Zada, and if more of the story had been about her and Sam getting to know each other.

Probably it improves as it goes on. But I got so fed up with Sam that I stopped reading.