Caterina and the Perfect Party

By Erin Eitter Kono

Ah, summer party planning! The time for happy, funfilled out door activities is upon us and with it comes time for summer parties. It can be an intense exercise for the uninitiated. Set date, finalize guest list, send out invites, pick out decorations, and plan the perfect menu. Details, details, details. Of course for Martha Stewart and others like her, it’s just another day, but for small brown birds like Caterina and her brother Leo, it’s akin to organizing for D-Day! The tiniest item must not be overlooked in planning the perfect event for friends.

All I know is after reading “Caterina and the Perfect Party”, I am seriously thinking about hiring this young stylish and creative young, energetic bird with her oversized fashion eyewear and pink-patterned hair bow, as MY party planner. Nothing escapes her organizational skill set for managing a gala event.

LISTS, of course, are at the top of her “list of things to do”. They are:

 

*Lists of things to do

*Lists of things not to do

*Lists of things to love

*Lists of things not to love

  

 Things not to love:

 surprises,

 surprises,

 surprises.

 

The day of the party dawns and Caterina is ready! The stage is set for her very first party, but there is one thing this bird-sized Perle Mesta has not planned on, and that is Mother Nature’s vagaries. SHE is the most unpredictable of females and the morning weather report calls for RAIN!

Will the forecast put a damper on Caterina’s shindig? Will her useless lists help her now? Maybe ONE will! The most important list of all for the perfect party – the list of FRIENDS! Now that heads the top of the list for party planning, for as every good party planner knows, they can make or break a party. And so Caterina learns, as a gathering of gift-bearing raccoons, bears, rabbits, roosters, owls, foxes, chickens, mice and more come, carrying food, friendship and music.

Planning can only take you so far, Caterina learns, as the surprises of unplanned activities evolving from rainstorms, lead to mud baths, mud pies, mud-dipped worms and mud-dipped friends. Don’t know how I feel about the worms, but the other three, with Caterina as “hostess with the mostest”, definitely guarantees your young reader will have a grand time! Skip the mud-dipped worms, but otherwise, have at it!