Pablo is a little autistic boy who loves to draw animals, and his favourites are Tang, a gorilla, Noa, a dinosaur, Draff, a giraffe, and Mouse, Wren, and Llama, who don't have different names. Pablo likes to draw stories that include his friends, and they help him deal with difficult situations. When mum tells Pablo that they have been invited to his cousin Lorna's birthday party, Pablo is pleased because he is to take a purple-wrapped box to the party, but he has forgotten that parties are noisy, and Pablo finds noise hard to bear. When the door opens, he hears, laughing, music, talking and lots of noise, and he drops the purple box and runs back to the car to hide. He takes out his crayons and begins to draw his friends, and when each appears, they hide in the car too because they aren't happy with noise either. Somehow Pablo has come to believe that the purple box is actually the party itself, and each of the animals when they arrive are reminded that parties are loud and scary and 'everybody is scared of parties, aren't they? says Mouse. Pablo says, 'Parties are too full of people who make faces I don't understand!' Wren opens the parcel, only to find that it isn't the party at all, but is, in fact, a present and is quiet. All the animals start flapping and singing in their delight, and suddenly Noa discovers that they all are a party on their own in the car. Mum appears and tells Pablo that it's fine for him not to go to the party inside the house, and he is able to go to the door to give Lorna her present without joining in: 'Some kids like to party. Some don't, and that's OK!' And you don't have to be autistic to dislike noisy parties, as I know! The illustrations are bright and original.