Happy Birthday, Biscuit!: A Sweet Picture Book About a Puppy's Party and Friendship for Kids

Biscuit's Holiday Celebrations

by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, Pat Schories (Illustrator)

Surprise! It's Biscuit's birthday, and he's having a party! Daisy and Puddles are coming over to celebrate, and there will be games and balloons and presents. Biscuit can't wait to open his birthday gifts, especially the big one under the table. Surely it will be something very special just for him! Join Biscuit, his young owner, Daisy, and Puddles as they romp around, eat treats, and celebrate a very special first birthday. It's Biscuit's first birthday, and he's having a party! The lovable golden puppy from the best-selling My First I Can Read Books and picture books Hello, Biscuit! and Biscuit's Picnic is back in his third picture book adventure. Join Daisy, Puddles, the Little Girl, and Biscuit as they play games, eat treats, and open presents. It's a delightful day of surprises when Biscuit has a birthday!

Genres: Picture Books, Dogs, Childrens, Storytime

24 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Alyssa Satin Capucilli was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1957. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, and pursued her interest in dance, becoming a professional dancer and dance instructor. Though Capucilli had written stories, poems, and even puppet shows as a child, she didn't consider a career as a writer until after her own two children were born. To this day she sees herself as both a dancer and a writer, and the two professions complement each other nicely: dancing is, in her words, “telling stories in another way,” and readers of her children's books can attest to the rhythm of her language. Since 1994, she has written more than 15 books for children, and her work has been translated into French, Hebrew, Afrikaans, Greek, and Bulgarian.

Capucilli lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, with her husband and children. They have a chocolate Labrador retriever named Huckleberry, who likes to watch the author at work.

Reviews

[L. McCoy]

SUPER FAST REVIEW:
Okay so I’ve been stressed lately. Like, barely able to sleep kinda stressed! I gotta say I recommend books like this even to adults because they’re very nice and happy reads.
The art is great, the story is adorable and so are the happy little animals! There’s also some good humor.
So yeah, I know a lot of people of all ages are stressed right now so I would recommend this (and the other Biscuit books I’ve read) as something fun, cute and happy to relieve some of that stress no matter how old you are! Reading this to my dog definitely gave me a smile and a few minutes of focusing on happy things despite times being stressful.

5/5

[Kathryn]

My littlest loves the Biscuit books. They are sweet and gentle and Biscuit is adorable. I personally find the writing boring and tedious but I keep my opinions to myself ;-) and we’ve read a bunch in the series. This is cute for a birthday edition.

[Jordyn Reddy]

Happy Birthday, Biscuit! written by Alyssa Satin Capucilli is one of my favorite books from my childhood. This book is adorable for animal and birthday lovers, incorporating the best of both worlds. This series is fun and enjoyable for children. Not to mention, the illustrations are always darling.

[Josh Bader]

This book was cute but very short. Maybe a little too short for my liking. It was a quick easy read. The story is about a dog named biscuits birthday. It is a short adventure of a girl doing a birthday party routine with her dog and Biscuits two friends Puddles and Daisy.

[Richelle]

This is a great book for toddler storytime. Nice length and good pictures

[Elizabeth]

AR 1.2

[Suzy Rose]

I thought it was really funny!

[Adam]

“Good.”

(read aloud by himself at 4yo, no words missed)

[Christy Johnson]

Biscuit has a birthday. This book has more words and punctuation than other early Biscuit books.

[Marissa Magnaghi]

i) Summary: In Happy Birthday Biscuit! written by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and illustrated by Pat Schories, a birthday celebration for a little puppy named Biscuit is described. A little girl plans a surprise birthday party for her dog with all of his friends. The story goes through all the events of the birthday party and always includes Biscuit’s reaction of “Woof!” whenever he is happy, excited, or even disappointed. The illustrations of the text are essential to the text on the page, which engages a younger audience.
ii) Theme: The major theme of this book is that surprises are meant to be fun, and even when things don’t go exactly as planned, the outcome will always be positive in the end!
iii) Rating: I would give this book a three out of five rating because although the illustrations are cute and cartoon-like, and I feel like the emotions and feelings towards the events in the book can only be seen through the pictures.
iv) Personal Response: This book brings me right back to the little birthday party I planned for my own dog when I was a child. I loved making up games and wrapping up treats to give to her as presents.
v) Recommendation: I would recommend this book to young children who want a quick and light-hearted read that has fun illustrations and a happy ending!

[Hailee Hogan]

Happy Birthday Biscuit
Summary: This is an adorable story about a dog named Biscuit and they are celebrating his birthday! All of his friends are coming to the party to celebrate and they are excited to have a great celebration. The Little Girl in the story helps Biscuit have his special day. They open presents and eat cake.

Theme: This is a feel good story. The main message of this story is happy and upbeat. A reminder of how special birthdays can be when spent with the people we love. Every little kid loves to celebrate their birthday and eat cake. What could be more fun than that!

Star Rating: 3 out of 5

Personal Response: My dog is my best friend; he is a yellow lab named Bingo who reminds me of Biscuit. My mom and dad always read my siblings and I these books. One of my favorite things about the Biscuit books is that its such a large series that there is a book for every occasion!

Recommendation: As much as I love this story there is not a huge theme associated with this story. It overall is a very cute but basic storyline. I would recommend this story to younger children who are looking for a book with fun illustrations.

[Miranda Jones]

This book captured my attention from the cover because of the adorable picture of the puppy. The illustrator, Pat Schories did a wonderful job with these illustrations. It looks like he used pen for the characters and details and that he used watercolors for the background. Although these characters are cartoons, they look very realistic because of their realistic movements and expressions. I enjoyed this picture book because it reminds me of me as a little girl. I have always been an animal lover and probably would have thrown a birthday party for my puppy, like this girl, if I had a puppy when I was younger. It was uplifting to see how much this girl loved her puppy because of her willingness to go to the work of trying to put together the best birthday party ever for her puppy. And although the mischievous puppy didn’t always follow her plans, she stilled loved him. This book is a fun, cheerful read for a young animal lover and I would love to have this book in my classroom library. It could be a neat book to read as a birthday book for a student whose birthday is that day.

[Tiffany Pitts]

It's Biscuit's birthday and he is having a party. His friends are coming over to celebrate, and their will be games and balloons and presents. Biscuit can not wait to open his birthday gifts, especially the big one under the table. It has to be something special just for him!

The author uses the element of linear time as the primary craft of writing. This concept was implemented rather simply and tedious. To make the story more interesting and engaging, the author could have used a more playful direction of time to tell the story of Biscuit opening his gifts.

Students can learn the difference between writing a story using linear (chronological) time and playing with time using elements such as snapshots, flashbacks or omission. For example, students can take the chronological order that the book presents, and write an alternate story utilizing a different time scheme; keeping the same story elements such as character, plot, conflict and ending.

[Maria]

I loved this book while reading it to my little one! He seemed interested in the pictures, and was listening intently as I was reading. I loved Biscuit; he was fun-loving, cute, and friendly, everything that I love in a little dog. I loved the story itself, as Biscuit prepares for his birthday, while inviting his closest animal friends. The interaction with humans is also a great addition, as it makes the child feel as though they are a part of the story as well. Would love to read more of the 'Biscuit' series, definitely a great book for young ones!

[Randy]

This is part of a series of books about the little dog Biscuit. My daughter loved the little animal birthday party, and I appreciated it for the fact that the animals are not anthropomorphized--it's nice to see a book where a dog is a dog and behaves that way. The story's quite simple but engaging and extremely fun.

[Tara Geske]

When I volunteered in a 1st grade classroom, the kids loved this series. Most of them had read every single one in the series. I thought it was a cute book and it was very easy to read. It would be a perfect beginners reading book. The pictures were also very cute! If I were to read it to a class, I would have the kids help me on the animal sounds, such as, "woof!", "meow", and "bow wow".

[Bailey Hauge]

I thought this book was fun, sort of. My favorite part was when Biscuit tried to open the presents under the table. Because it was funny that he was trying to open the presents before it was time. I didn't really like the beginning that much. It was sort of boring because he was just in bed. This was a good book for learning about a birthday party for a dog.

[Diana]

This was an okay book, but not what I needed for storytime. Better, probably, as a one-on-one read, as there are a lot of things to talk about. For example: Do dogs and cats usually get along? Is it a good precedent to allow a puppy to rip open wrapped boxes? :)

[Rachel]

the biscuit collection is fun to read to my one year old. he loves to hear me say "woof"! these books are not favorite,but they are cute.

[Angel Lederhause]

very plain book. (honestly I didn't like it. but the kids thought it was ok

[Yamila Barrientos]

Estos libros me dan mucha gracia y ternura :3

[Amy]

My son loves these gentle Biscuit books.

[Danette]

Read with Julia.