Esme lives on the top floor of an apartment building with her grandparents. On her birthday, Mimi and Pipo present her with a guitar but not the big shindig she was also expecting. Undeterred, Esme shrugs it off: "That's how it is with grandparents. They don't know about parties or piñatas. They don't know about birthday cake or music." Taking event planning into her own capable hands, the lovable, high-spirited child cleverly conscripts, cajoles, and coerces neighbours into arranging a perfecto party. Esme gets things done with lots of help from her friends. Her precocious, comically irrepressible, and a little bit bossy-pants personality shines through the first-person narration. Organized into 12 short chapters, the playful text features zippy dialogue, bullet-pointed lists, and plenty of pleasing repetition for beginning readers. Valdez's colourful, animated cartoon illustrations extend the celebratory fun and offer a peek inside apartments on each floor of the "topmost best building." Like the best bashes, this early-reader series debut is amusing and inviting.