As much as some would want to pretend otherwise, Archer knows that clowns are just people. Some are good and some are bad. Use all your senses to determine if one is trustworthy. He wants a clown for his birthday, but his mother is irrationally afraid and cites each piece of the clown's appearance as a reason. Archer swiftly counters with why those things are what he loves about a clown.

This pioneering book is a step in the right direction toward helping the professional clown stay viable in a time when parents often choose a safer but impersonal option for birthdays: Chuck E Cheese, Charlie's Safari, Jumpin' Jack's, etc. That's a benefit to me, but Mashburn's main intention is to help parents and children find a way to work through fear to experience happiness and joy.

If you choose to find a clown for your event, you are effectively inviting a disguised stranger to surprise you. That can make you and your guests feel very alive, and it might not work out if you have members of the party with unaddressed issues of coulrophobia. Let's just say that it could get ugly fast. This book could helpful when deciding whether to hire a clown and when letting guests know a clown will be present.

This is a book I could recommend that clowns bring with them to parties as a way to diffuse the anxiety of those coulrophobics who did not know a clown was coming. At 32 pages and about 300 words, this is the kind of book that could be used to warm up a hesitant audience and could be left as a souvenir to always remind parents and children to be courageous.