12-Year-Old Asks Mom for Potato Book Themed Birthday Party, Now Others Are Spudding It Up

Author Natali Simmonds (@njsimmondsbooks) is going viral on X (formerly Twitter), again, and it's tied to a potato book-themed birthday party her then 11-year-old child requested for the big day they turned 12 years old.

In the original post, Natali writes the following: "Me, to my 11 yo: What do you want to do for your 12th birthday party in Feb?

"Her: I want a Potato Book party

"Me: What's that?

"Her: Just something I came up with. We serve six different types of potatoes, everyone brings their books, and we read.

"Genius!"

It turns out that there were other folks who also thought the idea for a potato book party was also "genius" as another person ended up messaging Natali about the potato book-themed party.

As a means of celebrating another rotation around the sun, they, too, revealed that they were thrown a similar party by their loved ones, which resulted in them getting a big smile plastered all over their face.

The message reads: "I saw this post about 1.5 years ago and I loved it. I kept bothering my husband about throwing me my own potato-book party. He usually rolled his eyes and laughed."

What the person didn't know, however, was that their husband either had a change of heart regarding potato book-themed birthday parties, or they were really, really good at keeping a poker face for a solid consecutive 18 months.

"Well, I turned 35 in April and walked into a surprise Potato-Book Party! [It] was the best!"

From the sounds of what the birthday person's festivities were, it seems like their husband went all out. "There were all kinds of potatoes, and potato-themed decorations."

They add, "And all of my gifts were books or book-themed. I just wanted to thank your daughter for the greatest party idea ever (and you for the post)!"

Natali wrote that it was because of interactions like that that she doesn't want to leave X.

The author also pointed to the happy message from the fellow potato online to her child, writing: "I messaged it to my daughter and said, 'Never forget how we all have the power to make a stranger's life better in the smallest of ways.'"

Other people began sharing their own anecdotes involving potato love in response to her video. Like this one X user who talked about the "potato funeral luncheon" that was held in honor of their departed Great-Aunt Gert.

Gert loved potatoes and didn't consider it dinner unless there were some spuds on the table. "When she died at 98, we all made potato dishes for the luncheon after her funeral," the post read.

Another person wrote that the amount of different potato varieties was 100 percent spot on. "This is so cool. Also, six different types of potatoes is wildly specific and I have such respect for the thought process that determined five would be too few for a truly festive moment, but seven would be over the top," they wrote.

Someone else wished that this inspired more and more people to potato-book-party it up as well: "I hope this inspired many people to have their own potato book parties. It sounds cozy and fun."

Whereas another person remarked that they were planning on doing this for themselves as well: "My birthday is Saturday, and this gives me just enough time to throw together a potato-book party. For my Orioles fam, I'm sure we all have the same taters in mind."

And, like one commenter mentioned, there's a series of books called Supertato which chronicles the legend of a heroic potato who engages in incredible feats with their vegetable sidekicks.