Birthday Boy is a children's chapter book written by David Baddiel and illustrated by Jim Field. It was published on September 7, 2017.
Sam Green really, really, really loves birthdays. He loves the special breakfasts in bed. The presents. The themed parties. Blowing out the candles on his cake. Everything.
He is so excited about his 11th birthday, in fact, that he wishes it was his birthday every day.
So, at first, it's quite exciting when his birthday happens again the next morning. And again. And again. And again...
But it's not long before things start to go wrong. Soon, disaster strikes, threatening something Sam loves even more than birthdays.
Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for...
Birthday Boy contains examples of:
- Alliterative Title: Birthday Boy.
- Arc Words: "But it's my birthday".
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The premise of the story.
- Big Brother Bully: Sam becomes this towards Ruby during his Spoiled Brat phase.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: When Sam's grandfather goes missing on one of his birthdays.
- Book Ends: Counting the epilogue, the story begins and ends on Sam's real birthday.
- Breakfast in Bed: A very large, indulgent breakfast in bed upon waking up is the first part of Sam's birthday routine.
- Broken Record: When Sam tries to tell his parents to never mind his birthday, all they hear is "Birthday" over and over again.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Sam having his birthday every day causes it to become extremely casual business for him and his family.
- Christmas Every Day: Or rather, Sam's birthday every day.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Sam is a rather odd boy, to say the least.
- Doorstopper: This book is 416 pages long.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The "Running-out-of-ideas-tell-you-what-let's-do-as-much-of-the-day-as-we-can-standing-on-one-leg Birthday":I think the title of that birthday kind of... tells you all you need to know.
- Expy: The grandparents, who seem to be a homage to Charlie's grandparents in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
- Fanboy: Sam is a big fan of Star Trek, and sci-fi in general.
- Fat Bastard: Not only does Sam become fat from too much special breakfast and cake, he also becomes greedier and sulkier.
- Glad I Thought of It: Inverted in Chapter 2, when Sam congratulates his family for the awesome party ideas, only for them to point out that those were actually his ideas.
- Good-Times Montage: Part 2: "For he's a jolly good fellow...", which focuses on the various different themed birthday parties that Sam has throughout the year.
- Jerkass Realization: Sam has one when Ruby tells him that their grandfather has gone missing.
- Keet: Sam, especially around the time of his birthday. For example, him taking a day off from school to celebrate his third birthday has him going to a theme park, then Five Guys for lunch, then go-karting in the afternoon, then the new Pixar movie, then Byron for dinner.
- Loophole Abuse: Sam often uses his birthday as a "Get out of jail free" card.
- Motor Mouth: Sam can talk fast, and a lot at a time.
- One-Word Title:
- Chapter 2 is simply called "Um...".
- Chapter 29 is simply called "Skateboat".
- Chapter 58 is simply called "Nothing".
- Overly Long Gag: There are forty-seven "really"s when the opening paragraph describes Sam's excitement for his 11th birthday. The little blurb on the back has eighteen "really"s, which is still a lot.
- Reference Overdosed: This book has many, many, many pop culture references, including (but not limited to) Adventure Time, Star Trek, Star Wars, and The Amazing World of Gumball.
- Rule of Three: In the first chapter alone, Sam cuts off his family and friends' questions about his day to gush about his birthday fantasies.
- Running Gag: Morris always shows up to the parties wearing the wrong kind of costume.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The negative consequences of celebrating your birthday every day are depicted.
- Sam's family ends up going into severe debt.
- Sam's room becomes crowded with too many toys and presents.
- Sam gains a considerable amount of weight from all of the extravagant food.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Ruby finally gets her long-awaited kitten in the end.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Sam's favorite Breakfast in Bed consists of a full English breakfast, a glass of lemonade, and a doughnut (related to the last one, his second favorite breakfast dessert is French toast and Nutella). He also enjoys hamburgers.
- Trash of the Titans: Sam's room eventually becomes crowded with too many presents over the year.
- Two Words: Added Emphasis: Chapter 31 is called "Brick. Wall."
- Verbal Tic: Ruby is described as saying "actually" a lot.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never find out what happened to the star Sam made a wish on, or if it was really the star that fell down that triggered and fulfilled the wish, or if it was just something else.
- Wish Upon a Shooting Star: What kicks off the plot.
- You're Just Jealous: Sam claims that Ruby is just jealous that she can't celebrate her birthday every day when the latter calls out the former for isolating himself in his room.
