With saturated colors and figures in animated poses, Smit's illustrations seem to pop off the pages of this high-energy birthday tale. Rightly feeling left behind by the active games that his animal friends Frog, Squirrel, Duck and the rest play during his birthday party, slow Snail blows out his candles with a wish that he could be faster. When it's time to open presents, Snail's pleased but puzzled to receive a lightweight chair, a box of nails, a pile of lumber and like oddities - from which his friends then band together to construct the perfect gift. "It's a car! Whoopee!" shouts Snail, streaking off through the woods at top speed to join the fun. Like Valeri Gorbachev's Big Little Elephant (2005), this celebration offers insight into the kind of friendship that adapts to diversity rather than rejecting it. (Picture book. 5-7) (Kirkus Reviews)