A cute follow-up to The Pengrooms, with a lot more going on than just the custom-made cakes.
This time, Pringle and Finn are baking birthday cakes. When they deliver the cakes to birthday parties, they find they need to rely on a particular personal quality - a "secret ingredient" - in order to properly celebrate with the birthday family. For example, they must have courage to play an intimidating crocodile game with the crocodile family.
Once again, the author-illustrator challenges gender norms, this time drawing a "Birthday Boy" in a pink tutu. Another cake is delivered to the "Birthday Gull", with no gender specified. Illustrations are lovely, with many fun details to notice.
While again featuring same-gender couples, this book goes even further and normalizes same-gender parents. The birthday sloth has 2 dads, and the birthday gull has 2 moms.
There is a happy development at the end when Pringle and Finn celebrate "a different kind of birthday" upon the arrival of their own newborn baby.
Again I wondered if there is any basis to the same-sex animal pairings that were depicted. A brief online search said female-female seagull pairings do exist, and close bonds between same-sex sloths may be possible in captivity.
