This book just really isn’t necessary.  It’s trying to be a combination book, partly telling the story about some boys who are getting ready to surprise their mother for her birthday, and partly being an information book about birthday traditions (purple fact blurbs on each page).  The problem is that the facts and the story keep interrupting each other, and the story isn’t very interesting, and there are better birthday fact books available, so I wouldn’t bother with this one.