Fairy-Tale Puppy Picnic

In the fourth book of “The Party Diaries” series, Priya is planning a party for puppies. Now that she has some experience, Priya is even more organized, and her to-do lists have evolved and improved with each event. At the outset of the story, she introduces the members of her family and her friends who will be helping her with the party. Priya is very relatable, listing what is making her feel both embarrassed and confident about this party, emotions the book’s readers may also experience. Author Mitali Banerjee Ruths revisits Priya’s feelings throughout the story.

Priya gets started right away, meeting with the party host, her friend Dola, and finding out what the theme for the event is to be, all while making notes. Priya expresses that, though she is now more confident in her party planning, she is nervous about planning for dogs as she doesn’t have a dog and is not very familiar or comfortable with them.

Dola and Melissa help Priya with her party planning, and Priya admits she must remember to ask for help and accept help when offered so that she won’t become overwhelmed and become anxious. Dola tells Priya and Melissa about African wild dogs and that she would like the party to help this endangered animal. African wild dogs aren’t really dogs; they are sometimes called painted wolves, though they aren’t really wolves either. African wild dogs have patterns on their fur, hunt in packs and are facing shrinking habitats in Africa.

Together, the trio complete the party invitations and take a break to relax, with Priya observing that it is important to take breaks, especially for her when she is party planning. The next day, the friends divide the invitations up and deliver them, Priya is hesitant about delivering one of the invitations to Ethan as she finds his jokes strange and she can never quite tell if he is being nice or not. When they deliver his invitation, Ethan’s dog, Squid, jumps all over Priya, and she is scared.

The next day at Dola’s house, the friends make decorations, and Dola’s mom makes lunch with some unique dishes native to Africa. Dola’s mom tells them about “adire”, a cloth from Nigeria and the history of this cloth in West Africa. Artists draw on it with wax or tie it with string and then dye it to create patterns. Priya says it reminds her of her grandmother’s saris. The girls decide to use the cloth to create a garland for the party. The author weaves Dola’s and her family’s Nigerian culture into the story and into the party itself.

As the week goes by, Priya crosses off most of the things on her to-do list; however, on Friday it is raining, and she is worried the party might get rained out. She does not have an alternate plan for the puppy picnic if it rains, but she prepares the people cupcakes and puppy cupcakes. Luckily, on Saturday, the rains stops, and, though it is a bit wet, it is perfect for the party. She and her friends finish setting up just as the guests arrive. Ethan compliments the décor, and everyone begins to play catch with their pets. Priya notes that everyone is happy, but she is feeling awkward because she doesn’t know what she should be doing in that she doesn’t have a dog. She tries to be brave and play Frisbee with everyone even though she isn’t the best at catching.

Things are going well when Dola realizes that her puppy, Prince, is missing, Priya begins to panic because she did not think about something like this happening. All the guests work together and look all over the park. Ethan is the one who finds Prince, and Priya is surprised because he has been kind and helpful all day. The party is a hit as all the pups had a great time and all the human guests are happy, too. Priya thinks this party was a success. To celebrate the party, Dola’s family made a donation to help African Wild Dogs, and they gave Priya a wonderful bag to carry her party supplies. At the of the day, Priya shared photos of the party on her social media account, and she received a message about a new party to plan.

The font is easy to read with speech bubbles and note book style to make it look like pages out of Priya’s diary. There are plenty of colours and interesting visuals to keep younger readers engaged. Illustrator Aaliya Jaleel incorporates patterns and textures on Priya’s grandmother’s sari and Nigerian adire cloth to give reader’s a beautiful idea of what they look like. At the end of the book, there is a fun DIY project with easy to understand instructions, including visuals, that leads to readers making their own fabric garland. Some review questions encourage readers to revisit parts of the story and reiterate in their own words or seek clarification.