** 2021 Honour Book CBCA Picture Book of the Year**

Your Birthday was the BEST!
by Maggie Hutchings, illustrated by Felicita Sala

From the author of the best-selling Mermaid! and Unicorn! and one of the world’s hottest new picture-book illustrators comes the story of a plucky young cockroach who gate-crashes a birthday party – with hilarious results. Funny, silly and surprisingly cute, Your Birthday Was the BEST! is the perfect blend of downright gross and delightfully.

he author says...
What inspired me to write 'YOUR Birthday Was the BEST!'?
The first time I visited Affirm Press's office, I was keen to make a good impression. I was after all, meeting everyone for the first time, and I wanted to be taken seriously as a writer of quality stories. I thought I'd stun them all with my deepest thoughts about all things literary...but of course I didn't. Instead, I told the entire staff about the time I saw REAL rainbow poo in a knife and fork drawer and how I thought it was some sort of cake decorating sugar sprinkles...
Just to be clear... It wasn't sugar sprinkles OR unicorn poo (obviously unicorns can't fit in knife and fork drawers). Knife and fork drawers are where cockroaches like to party, and if cockroaches eat wax crayons the cheery result is tiny pellets of poo in many waxy colors! After I'd told the story, I said "I should write a book about that."
SO....I did! AND it was the BEST.

The CBCA judges say...
The premise of this story is refreshingly new and offers a different perspective on birthday celebrations. Hutchings and Sala work in perfect union to introduce the reader to the amusing antics of these cockroach anti-heroes. The result is a series of witty situations which encourages the reader to consider that bugs might revel in all things gross such as hairy cheese and toenails. The minimal and powerful text gives room for the illustrations to carry much of the story. This book works on many levels; a scream of fear or a scream of excitement? Readers will delight in the inventiveness of this bold and uproarious story.