There is a particular kind of attention a child feels on a birthday, the sense of being singled out gently and told that the world is glad she came. Gordana Katarina Brzaj, a kindergarten teacher in Croatia, wrote this slim book to explain the birthday story, the ritual at the heart of how Waldorf kindergartens and early grades mark a child's day. The story is addressed directly to the birthday child, and its whole purpose is to leave her with the feeling that she is known and that her life here has meaning, which is the sort of thing far easier to sit through than to describe on paper. Brzaj does the describing anyway, plainly and without ceremony, walking through how to prepare the celebration and how to shape the story at its center. It is short enough to read the week before you need it.

• Saddle stitched softcover
• 32 pages
• 7" x 10