Kid Konnection: 11 Birthdays
Amanda and Leo were born on the same day in the same hospital. They become fast friends and even celebrate their birthdays together every year. As their tenth birthday party is about to start, Amanda overhears Leo telling some of the guys that he doesn’t like having his party with her, but his mom makes him, and besides that, she doesn’t have many friends. Devastated, Amanda leaves the party and doesn’t speak to Leo again.
Since they’re not friends anymore, Amanda and Leo are having separate parties for their eleventh birthday. Amanda’s day doesn’t go all that well and she finds herself thinking about Leo, but she manages to get through the day and the party and is thankful when it’s all over. Only, it’s not – she wakes up the next day to find it’s her birthday all over again. At first, she thinks she’s the only one who notices, but she discovers that Leo knows it’s happening too.
Amanda and Leo must team up to discover what’s caused this time glitch and to figure out how to stop it.
11 Birthdays, by Wendy Mass is a delightful middle grade book! It’s told from Amanda’s point of view and I have to say that I think the author does an excellent job of capturing the pre-teen girl’s voice. I felt so much for Amanda – she’s trying to navigate middle school, a hormonal older sister, and busy parents and then her life starts to rewind itself every day for some unknown reason.
At first, it seems like it might be fun to live your birthday over and over again, but after reading what Amanda and Leo went through, you’ll re-think that. Sure, you have to suspend disbelief to enjoy this book, but it’s so worth it. This book is loads of fun and made me laugh and smile. The middle grade girls in your life won’t want to miss this book!
Great review. This was Booking Daughter’s favorite book when she read it.
Sounds like a cute book. I guess it would be fun for the first couple of times you relived it, but after that it would probably get old. Enjoyed the review.
Mason
Thoughts in Progress
As a giant fan of the film Groundhog’s Day, I get a bit excited every time I see a story about repeating a day. Sounds like a fun book!
This is the book they gave The Girl at the Scholastic tour. I just read your review to her, and now she’s really looking forward to reading it. I’ll probably have to borrow it from her to read it myself. 😉
We read Finally from Wendy Mass and thought it was hilarious. She is a talented author.
I haven’t read anything by Mass yet but this sounds like a great book. I’ll share it with my girls.
My granddaughter was telling me about this book. She is a big fan of Wendy Mass’ books. Now, of course, I’m going to become a fan too.
11 Birthdays sounds like a really good book, one that both my middle-schooler and I would enjoy reading.
Nice review. This sounds really cute!!
Your summary made me think of a friend of ours, in her eighties, who just celebrated her birthday. Her sister was born on the same day, just eight years later. When she told her teacher that she and her sister had the same birthday, but eight years apart, her teacher said, “Don’t tell lies.”
Gotta love those teachers from the 50’s (and the ones I had) who didn’t believe a word you said!
This sounds really cute. I’m going to have to look for this one for Betty … seems like something she would enjoy. Thanks!
Sounds totally cute!
I loved Every Soul a Star, but not this one so much. Then again, it was the last book I read during the read-a-thon and I was a little tired! 🙂
This sounds like a fun book. I haven’t read any middle grade books lately and I need to work a few in and this one sounds perfect. Added to by tbr list. 🙂
It sounds like a cute book!
Looks like a fun middle grade read!
Note to self: get book and read!! This one is on my school shelves so I will make sure to pick it up when school returns to session!
This sounds really neat. I love the idea … kind of a Groundhog Day for kids. And the idea of the strained relationship between them sounds interesting too.
It might be a little young for my daughter, but I think she might actually like this story and have fun with it. She reads really fast, so I am assuming that she might be able to stick this one in between a couple of other longer books. Great review, I will be looking for this one!
This sounds like it could be a lot fun.
I’ll be mentioning this to my cousin! 🙂
Sounds fun! I’ll have to put this on my wish list.