I Wasn't Invited to the Birthday: A Book Full of Magic

There are books whose stories remain in your heart and mind for a long time. This is the case with "I Wasn't Invited to the Birthday" by Susanna Isern.

Some stories are so simple and understandable for children, while containing essential messages for personal development. When these types of stories also include beautiful and expressive illustrations, then all the better for small readers. With that in mind, we want to tell you about a great book that has all of these qualities: I Wasn’t Invited to the Birthday, by Susanna Isern.

As the title entails, I Wasn’t Invited to the Birthday is a book that’s full of magic. It has a beautiful message that will invite little ones to reflect and open the door for older children to deal with an important topic. If you want to know more about this story, continue reading.

What’s the story of I Wasn’t Invited to the Birthday?

I Wasn’t Invited to the Birthday is an illustrated album that’s perfect for children ages 5 and up. It’s ideal for first-time readers because of the small amount of text on each of its pages. What’s more, all of the writing is in capital letters. However, children who haven’t learned to read yet will still enjoy this book, since its illustrations perfectly portray what’s happening throughout the story.

At the beginning of the book, we meet Marc, a boy who, as the illustrations show, is somewhat sad. That’s because he’s discovered that all of his classmates are happy because they’ve got a birthday party this afternoon.

However, since Mark didn’t receive an invitation to the party, his mood doesn’t match that of his peers. For a few moments, the main character remains alone. But then Yuna and Adri appear; neither of whom were invited to the party either. Together, they spend a magical afternoon full of adventures that they’ll never forget.

This situation is more common than we think in real life, and the author has illustrated it perfectly through Marc, Yuna and Adri’s experiences.

I Wasn’t Invited to the Birthday: The importance of the illustrations

As we pointed out at the beginning, the story wouldn’t be the same without its illustrations. They’re more than an accessory; in fact, they’re an essential part of the story.

Illustrator Adolfo Serra has perfectly captured the essence of the story, or, more specifically the feelings. He uses color masterfully to express the emotions that occur throughout the pages of the book.

At the beginning of the story, readers find all the pages in gray and dark tones, regardless of what appears in them. With these tones, Serra expresses the feelings of sadness and emptiness that Marc is feeling when he finds out about the party.

However, as the story evolves, so do the colors. An explosion of joyful colors fill the final part of the book, when Marc, Yuna and Adri start having fun together and stop thinking about the birthday.

In addition to the colors that appear, we invite you to stop and admire the illustrations as a whole. You’ll discover a number of details within them that are worth commenting on together with your children.

The values this story communicates

Sometimes dealing with and managing emotions isn’t easy for children. Therefore, it’s essential for little ones to learn to name their feelings and be able to understand and express what’s happening to them.

In this sense, I Wasn’t Invited to the Birthday is an ideal tool for working on various feelings like sadness, frustration and self-motivation.

It’s also a good resource for explaining to children that they don’t always fit in everywhere. What’s more, not everyone around has to be their friend.

As author Susanna Isern explains in her blog, this story is based on real situations and real feelings. Nowadays, not being invited to a birthday party can bring a lot of unhappiness to both children and parents.

Despite the sadness of the first pages, all the values and messages that this story leaves us are positive because, as Susanna points out, “there’ll always be a place where they’re invited.”