Jenny's Birthday Book

About Jenny’s Birthday Book

“Jenny celebrates her birthday with a picnic in the park. All her friends are invited, and after the picnic supper they dance the sailor’s hornpipe. The illustrations have the same gaiety and charm that have appealed to so many young children in the past.” —Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Praise for Esther Averill and the Jenny series:

“As with any successful work of fiction…what makes these stories especially pleasing is not the relevance of the issues they address but the skill with which their characters and scenes are drawn. The members of the Cat Club…and the other cats with whom Jenny consorts in Lower Manhattan, have distinct personalities, recognizable by and interesting to human beings, presumably the bulk of Averill’s readership. However, whereas the animals in many children’s books are merely people with fur, Averill captures the essential catness of her characters. Averill colors her stories with abundant flights of clever fancy…But the nonchalance with which she delivers these makes them as real as her grounding details….Children will find Jenny’s lessons about emotions and behavior helpful and reassuring.”
—Christina Schwarz, The Atlantic Monthly, 2003

“How wonderful to have, all in one book, this collection of favorite stories (long out of print) about the little black cat with her jaunty scarf and her friends in the Cat Club. These are wonderful read-alouds for young listeners, and easy-to-read stories for those reading on their own.”
— Book Passage, Holiday Choice

“The grace and charm of these little books are not only for children. In wording, illustration, and design they offer to people of all ages a short interview of pure delight.”
—The Saturday Review

“Averill’s illustrations should be as endearing to new readers as to those who enjoyed them during their first release.”
— Publishers Weekly

“There is a realness about Jenny, as well as a demure charm, that gives these annals of her doings a distinction lacking in many a more pretentious effort.” —The New Yorker

“In Jenny readers meet the perfect friend—an honest, fun-loving, and loyal playfellow and comrade-in-arms. How good to have Jenny back in print…” —Leonard S. Marcus, author of Storied City: A Children’s Book Walking Tour Guide to New York City