Customer Reviews

11 Birthdays

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

11 Birthdays is Groundhog Day for tweens.

Amanda and Leo have known each other forever. No, really. Their parents met in the Willow Falls Birthing Center the day that their kids were born. Exactly one year later, they all happened to be at the same place for their birthday parties. Leo offered Amanda his stuffed bear, and the two babies became friends. They celebrated their birthday together every year since. Then, during their tenth birthday party, Amanda overheard Leo say something that really hurt her, and they pretty much stopped speaking to each other.

Amanda's eleventh birthday isn't horrible, but the day doesn't exactly go according to plan, either. She gets talked into trying out for the school gymnastics team by her friend, then freezes up when she's supposed to do a back handspring. Her dad has a terrible cold. Her older sister Kylie seems preoccupied. In honor of her movie-themed birthday party, her mom got Amanda a Dorothy costume that's uncomfortable. With Leo having his own party at the same time, only half of the kids that were invited come to Amanda's house, and some leave early to go to Leo's place. Wearing an itchy dress and shoes that hurt her feet, Amanda's pretty miserable, but she doesn't really complain. As she crawls into bed that night, she's thankful for what she has - her family, her health, the upcoming weekend - and is grateful that the day is over.

Then she wakes up the next day - or what she thinks is the next day - only to discover it's Friday again! At first, she thinks her family is teasing her, but her sister's wearing the same outfit and her parents are insisting that she goes to school, so she goes with it. Almost everything that happened the previous day at school happens again, and the same things happen that night at her birthday party. Amanda's puzzled, to say the least, but sure that everything will go back to normal the next day.

Then the next day ends up being the same day again - and the next day - and the next! As she tries to figure out what's going on, she makes important discoveries and allies. Thanks in part to a mysterious and kind elderly woman with a duck-shaped birthmark, Amanda might finally get through the day and mend her broken friendship with Leo.

Once again, Wendy Mass captures a precious age without pretension, without making her characters too precocious. It's very nice to see a boy and a girl be just friends, without any romance involved or assumed. Throughout the story, Leo and Amanda act their age: they are stubborn, truthful to a fault, impulsive, even silly at times. This is a totally cute story that both kids and their parents will enjoy.

I needed a book that would be...well...restful to read. No death, no car chases, no kidnapped kids. 11 BIRTHDAYS is just such a book. If you know a 'tween (or ARE a 'tween) who needs a little break from spy kids, vampires, computer hackers and explosions, then give this book a try. It's full of humor, the kids are far from perfect, and I predict you will be delighted. It's the story of a friendship gone wrong, and how it is mended. I particularly liked it that, when "mistakes were made," people tried to apologize and make it right.

This is a great book about a girl named Amanda and a boy named Leo. They were born on the same day.Ever since their first birthday,they have celebrated together.But for their eleventh birthday, they aren't going to.
Neither of them are excited at all. Amanda wakes up and finds that her dad is sick and her mom has an important meeting to go to.Happy birthday, huh? And it gets worse.
By the end of the day, Amanda can't wait for the next day.But there is just one problem. The next day IS her birthday. All over again!
This hilarious but sad adventure shows how two friends come together to somehow find out how this happened and maybe solve this glitch in time.In the process,they find out that the same thing happened to their great-great grand parents. I loved this story and recomend it to anyone that loves a touching story about two friends and their love for eachother.~Suzie Q.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11 birthdays was the best time warp story ever. It had just the right amount of everything. After you read this book you will want to read 12 finally and 13 gifts (finally is great too, im on the fifth chapter of 13 gifts)

Amanda Ellerby and Leo Fitzpatrick were born on the same day, just a few minutes apart. It seemed like destiny wanted them to be best friends and, for ten years, they were. Amanda and Leo did everything together - they even celebrated their birthdays together. They had the musical babies party (2nd birthday), the bowling party (6th) and the disco party (8th). But on their tenth birthday, right before their haunted mansion party, Amanda overheard Leo saying mean, hateful things about her. She ran away from her own birthday party and her former best friend and she hasn't spoken to Leo since.

With Amanda's eleventh birthday (and Leo's too, of course) looming on the horizon, she is facing having her birthday party alone for the very first time. You might think she would be excited about being the sole center of attention for once, but Amanda just wishes she had never heard Leo saying those horrible things, that he was still her best friend. Throughout the long, miserable night of her party, Amanda is grateful for just one thing: tomorrow she can put this entire Leo-less birthday behind her. Except... when Amanda wakes up the next morning, it's her birthday all over again. She is stuck in some sort of a time loop, with her birthday on endless repeat. And, as it turns out, she is not alone. Leo, of all people, is stuck right along side Amanda. The two of them will have to work through their troubles and find a way - together - to break out of this loop if they ever want to see another day again.

I loved this book from beginning to end. Wendy Mass has such insight into the nature of childhood friendships and she gives Amanda's voice just the right touch of anger, bewilderment and loss when recalling Leo's betrayal. As the story unfolds, we gradually see that the end of their lifelong friendship has been painful for Leo, too, and that not everything that Amanda thinks she knows about what she heard is necessarily true.

The time loop, and Amanda and Leo's reaction to it, is handled perfectly as well. I loved how, when they discovered they were both in the same boat, they decided to use the opportunity to have a `no consequences' day, before slowly realizing that endlessly repeating the same day was not as much fun by the seventh or eighth run through. 11 Birthdays is a wonderful book, perfect for the 8-12 age range. I, for one, cannot wait to read more of Ms. Mass's novels about the sometimes strange happenings in the town of Willow Falls.

Amanda Ellerby's eleventh birthday is nothing to write home about. Her best friend Stephanie doesn't even see her on the bus in the morning. There's a pop quiz in history class. She forgets her lunch. After school, Amanda has to go through the embarrassment of trying out for the gymnastics team (because Stephanie wants her to). Then there's the whole problem with Leo.

She hasn't talked to Leo Fitzgerald since their birthday exactly a year ago. (No, Amanda and Leo aren't twins - they're friends who were born on the same day. Their parents met in the birthing center and since then it's as if their friendship was `meant' to happen.) Not only aren't they talking, Leo's party was a huge success - Amanda's not so much. To top it off - after the party, Amanda finds out her mother's been fired.

Amanda hopes to wake up to a better day but when the 'next' morning comes, her whole terrible birthday starts over again. Reminiscent of the movie Groundhog Day, Amanda keeps reliving her eleventh birthday.

The author has done a great job in giving enough detail about the day and Amanda's friendship trouble to make the repeating days even more interesting. I got a kick out of reading as Amanda tries acting in different ways to break the cycle. How did she get trapped in her eleventh birthday? And even more importantly how can she get out?

Amanda learns a huge lesson in the adage, "Things aren't always as they seem." She learns a little bit about her family. And she learns a lot about the value of friendship and forgiveness.

This is a great summer reading book. It's light-hearted, magical and well-written fun!!

Amanda used to love her birthday. She has a whole scrapbook full of pictures of birthday parties past, back when she used to celebrate with her best friend Leo, whom she "met" when both were newborns in the hospital, born on the same day. For nine happy birthdays, Leo, Amanda and their families celebrated together. But that all ended the night of their 10th birthday party, when Amanda heard Leo telling his guy friends that he was embarrassed to hold birthday parties with a girl, that they weren't really friends, and that he didn't like Amanda after all.

For a year, Amanda and Leo haven't spoken to each other, and it hasn't been easy on Amanda. She has tried to fit in with a new group of friends, but they're more interested in gymnastics and weight loss than in getting to know the real Amanda. Now, on her (and Leo's, but she's trying to forget about that) 11th birthday, Amanda is dreading what should be a really exciting day. Her mom is stressed about work, her older sister is anxious about finding a date for the dance, Amanda has been roped into trying out for the gymnastics team even though she can't do a back handspring, and she's worried that nobody will come to her lame birthday costume party because everyone from her grade will be at Leo's party instead.

Sure enough, Amanda's birthday is just as horrific as she had thought it would be. So imagine her shock, horror and confusion when she wakes up the next morning only to discover that it's her birthday all over again! First she's convinced it's a big joke, then she's scared --- and finally she learns that she might have an unexpected ally to help her figure out why she's reliving this same day over and over again, and how she can break the curse once and for all.

The basic premise of Wendy Mass's 11 BIRTHDAYS will seem familiar to anyone who has seen the movie Groundhog Day. Unlike in that film, however, Amanda must solve a mystery in order to break the endless cycle of reliving her 11th birthday. Her quest takes her deep into her local and family history and back to a vital friendship connection she thought she had lost forever. In addition, her repeated reliving of her birthday reminds her who she is, what she wants and who her real friends are. Coming of age in just one day might seem impossible --- but when she has 11 chances to do things right, Amanda just might seem to do a lot of growing up overnight.

Although the plot might be fantastical, Mass's perceptive book uses a lighthearted premise to delve into the serious topics of middle school friendships, particularly the complicated dynamics that arise when boys and girls --- who used to think nothing of playing together --- now have their friendships thrown into crisis. 11 BIRTHDAYS might seem like a fanciful, even frivolous fantasy novel, but it offers genuine insights into ways in which middle school children can be true to their friends --- and to themselves.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

This book was extremely adorable I finished it in a few hours and did not take a break because that's just how much I enjoyed it. It's a short quick read about an 11 year old girl who keeps reliving her birthday. She and her ex-best friend Leo, who share the same birthday, will not be celebrating it together because of a fight they had. :( She must find a way to figure out how to stop her birthday from repeating and maybe just maybe find a way to be friends with Leo again. :) Ahhh this book is soo CUTE!
This was my first Wendy Mass book and will not be the last. I highly recommend this cute read especially for those who are 11 or a bit younger. That doesn't mean older folks won't enjoy it because I'm not that young and I thought it was flippin' awesome.
-tvandbookaddict.blogpsot.com

My aunt gave me this book for my 11th birthday and i loved it! It made me really think because sometimes I wish I could repeat a day and do everything over and make everything better. Or take something back that I've said. I really loved this book.

Today's yesterday, no, today's my birthday again! 11 Birthdays is a book about a girl and a boy that has their birthday over and over. Wendy mass is a great author that wrote a great book about having your birthday repeated.
A girl named Amanda and a boy named Leo has spent their last 10 birthdays together but on their 10th birthday they get in a fight and haven't talked science. Amanda cant weights tell the day after her birthday but that day may never come. Her and Leo need to get together and find out about their great grand prance and there fuid. As far as they know there birthday is repeating just like there grand prance on harvest day. Leo and Amanda need to stop their birthday from repeating.
My favorite part of the book was when Leo and Amanda they there 11th birthday together after their birthday has been repeating a few times. I love this part because they both have so much fun and they get to have their birthday together. The down part to this part is that the next day it is still there birthday.