The Great Birthday Surprise!
By (Author) Tanya Wright
Illustrated by Ashley Evans
Sourcebooks, Inc
Sourcebooks Young Readers
11th November 2025
United States
Children
Fiction
Picture storybooks: imagination and play
Childrens / Teenage personal and social topics: Diversity, equality, equity and
Childrens / Teenage: Chapter books (transitional storybooks)
Paperback
128
Width 140mm, Height 210mm
Hairiette's birthday goes from disappointing to dazzling when she gets a surprising and spectacular present. Hip, hip, hooray! It's Hairiette's Birthday! With her glowy hair done and the perfect dress picked out, Hairiette is ready for her special seventh birthday present. But on the big day, there is no bike in sight! All she gets is a stinking barrette and comb. It looks like it isn't going to be a hip hip hooray day after all...until a class unit on imagination changes everything! i + magi + nation = My Magic Nation! Using the power of her imagination, Hairiette turns her boring birthday gifts into charmed objects that whisk her off to an enchanted place called Magic Nation where she can have hip hip hooray days every day! All she needs is a little creativity and the magic words, "Razzle, Dazzle, Diddly, Do!" and soon the adventures begin!
Tanya Wright, Ed.M is a graduate of Harvard Graduate School of Education where she won both the Harvard Innovative Venture in Education Award and the Education Entrepreneurship Fellowship for Hairiette. Ms. Wright wrote and directed the filmed puppet musical Goodnight, Hairiette (the prequel to the Hairiette of Harlem book series) and voiced the characters of "Hairiette" and "Nana Grace." Tanya is a two-time SAG Award winning actor (Best Ensemble) and has appeared on countless television shows. Ms. Wright is from New York.