When I was a little girl, one of my favourite stories took place at a birthday party where a girl got upset when a bubble burst, and this is the one. As with 'Dogger,' about three illustrations in this edition don't appear in 'The Shirley Hughes Collection.' I am starting to read as many of Shriley's books as possible at the moment and this is probably the best Alfie story so far. As Alfie's boisterous best friend Bernard shows off at the paty, Alfie holds onto his blanket but will he or won't he put it down? This is a good example of Shirley's work where she expresses her characters very well. 5/5.