Birthday Surprises: Ten Great Stories to Unwrap

by Johanna Hurwitz

"This unique collection of short stories celebrates the creative power of imagination. At Hurwitz's invitation 10 well-known children's authors have written pieces based on a single a young person finds an empty box among his or her birthday gifts. The enormously varied responses range in tone from amusing to heartwarmingly sad; all provide food for thought....An excellent surprise package."--School Library Journal.

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Johanna Hurwitz is an American author of more than sixty children's books. She has sold millions of books in many different languages.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

HORRIBLE. All ten stories have the exact same concept. It is too predictable. The first story you read is great, but the rest of the stories are bad.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kids book I bought years ago to give to some person or other. I can’t give a fair review, as I’m not the target audience.

[Linden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by children's and young adults' authors, this collection of short stories is based on the premise of receiving an empty box as a birthday present.

Of the array, two were suited for reading to students; one was a poem by Karla Kuskin, "The Birthday of Madeleine Blore". I am not generally fond of rhyming poetry; it often feels deadly to be captured by its meter tapping away like a woodpecker on the roof. But Kuskin, one can see, intends more than meter as she breaks rules and plays with rhythms showing us the perfection of the present Madeleine received in that empty box.

The other story of note, "Hattie's Birthday Box" is by Pam Conrad. I loved it for its understanding of human nature. The story begins at the hundredth birthday of Spencer McClintic, at a reunion of family from far and wide. Spencer, though, is dreading the arrival of his younger sister. He had given her an empty box he'd made for her sixteenth birthday as she set off to homestead in Nebraska as a new bride. He had not seen her since: seventy four years it was. Now he was embarrassed by the gift and dreaded her arrival.

[Sloane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Birthday Susprises: Ten Great Stories to Unwrap by Johanna Hurwitz. I thought this book was good because although all of the 10 stories were on (kind of) the same main idea, they were so diffrent. My favorite was the one with Dianne and her friend gave her an empty box for her birthday. She did this because all of Dianne's promises were 'empty', just like the box. I liked the story behind that one the most. As I was reading this book I was always on the friends side. I think the author wrote the mini story this way to get Dianne as the 'bad guy' kind of like most sittuations in Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I recommend this book to people who like realistic fiction.

[Melanie Swider Wenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this collection of short stories years ago when it was first published, but haven't used it in awhile so I just reread all of the stories this morning - so glad I did! I will definitely read aloud some of the short stories next year - students will love the mystery of figuring out the meaning of the empty box in each story and may even inspire them to write their own birthday stories with an empty box!
Some of my favorite stories in this collection are:
No Such Thing by Ann M. Martin
Don't Be an Uncle Max by David A. Adler
Victor by James Howe
Promises by Ellen Conford

[Jameyanne Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was lots of fun and really cute. Sone of the stories were felt young, and it is a kids book, i just prefer uppeer middle grade to lower middle grade. Also while i liked the idea of an anthology of stories all based on the same premise, it did mean that some of the stories were predictable. But on the whoole i really enjoyed this book. I loved all tthe different takes on the premise and it was a nice break from serious high stakes stuff.

[Emily L]

I am done with this book and it was awesome!!! It is all diffrent stories.

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's fun to read. It has a fun plot for all these different writers. So far it's been super fun!