This is a great chapter book for reading aloud with young readers. I hesitate to label it for early readers, as there is enough tricky vocabulary and the style is, at times, clearly phrased for the adult's amusement (in a similar way as the Amelia Bedelia series). In a way, it's a sort of modern retelling of Eloise, but instead of a swanky hotel, Esme lives on the "uppermost floor of the topmost best building" with her Grandparents Mimi and Pipo. Much like Eloise, Esme is a precocious (perhaps annoying from an adult perspective?) narrator with her heart set on planning the best birthday ever for herself and all her neighbours (whether they want to attend or not). There is a lot of lovely representation with her neighbours and the chapters are short and beautifully illustrated, making it a perfect story to share with your own budding party planner. ( )

First off, I LOVED the illustrations in this book! The colorful, fun illustrations go perfectly with Esme's outgoing personality, and I enjoyed the diversity of the characters. The story itself was very cute and even reminded me a little of Ali Baba Bernstein by Johanna Hurwitz. Some of the sentences seemed very repetitive and could have been combined to make the story flow easier, especially when reading aloud.

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.* ( )

This is a delightful first chapter book. Young readers will delight as the determined Esme makes a birthday party for herself and includes all her neighbours. The illustrations are adorable too. I love it. Highly recommend. ( )

This is a very cute and fun early chapter book. Esme is a great positive and enthusiastic main character, and the other inhabitants of her "topmost best building" make for a wonderful little community of characters that it would be fun to see more of in future books. The illustrations in particular added a lot to this book, and readers will have fun spotting places where they make clear how Esme's perception of things don't always match up with reality, often in very amusing ways. The title is a little misleading, however, as the conga line isn't really a major focus of the story or even called that in the text, I think a better title would've focused more on the birthday party planning aspect that makes up most of the story. ( )

This is a well laid out early chapter book. Short chapters and small illustrations encouraged my daughter beyond picture books. The story is cute as well and taught a lovely lesson on how to positively navigate expectations. ( )