"My name is Duncan Rumplemeyer, and I am not a bad kid—but sometimes I act like one." The cause of the hero's "bad birthday" stems from two problems: Duncan is having "one of [his] mischievous days" plus he does not like sharing. "If a toy is fun, why let go of it? Who know when you'll get it back?" Nothing is going right. Duncan gets up in the night and opens his family's gifts ("I woke up and thought, Presents are in this house
. I checked the clock. It was almost
my birthday...."), incurring the wrath of his mother. When his father asks Duncan if he likes the party clown, the boy replies honestly, "No," offending his father. Then, with a banshee-like fury, the boy blows his top at his guests when they start playing with his new toys. "After that everybody went home." Soon Duncan realizes that friends matter most, and he makes amends with one, as a start. Stadler's google-eyed characters and boldly-outlined, naïf drawing style are well-suited to subjects of pint-size emotional turmoil. But the pithy eloquence that distinguished the Beverly Billingsly books goes missing here. The wordy, at times overly sophisticated text feels a bit like a youngster trying to do a Seinfeld routine ("When my father brought me my snack, I asked if I was allowed one phone call"); the lesson at the end detracts from the otherwise authentic feelings of a stubborn kid. Still, readers will likely revel in Duncan's "mischief." Ages 3-7. (Sept.)
