11 Birthdays

Super sweet story. I thought she captured the age pretty well, except you never would have caught my friends and I dancing in a public setting when we were 11. But I appreciated that there was no romance or even hints in that direction. She also handled the concept in a original way. It would make a good read-aloud to an elementary class, maybe even middle school. ( )

Yeah, I just shelved this as "paranormal" AND "realistic-fiction"... If that's not an oxymoron, I don't know what is. But both fit!

So the book starts off in the hospital on the day Amanda and Leo are born. A strange older woman with a duck-shaped birthmark on her face, who is said to have lived in the town since before anyone can remember, meets both sets of parents and makes them promise to have Amanda and Leo celebrate each of their birthdays together. They're like, "Yeah, yeah..." But after an accidental double-booking of the party place on their 1st birthdays, they become the best of friends, and really do end up celebrating all of their birthdays together. Up until #10, when Amanda overhears Leo talking smack to his guy friends, which included rude things about her, naturally...

So the book takes place on the day of their 11th birthdays, and Amanda and Leo haven't spoken since their last birthday party. Amanda's birthday pretty much sucks, and when she goes to bed that night, she is SO glad it's over. Except when she wakes up, it's her birthday again... (Think Groundhog Day.) So the rest of the book, she's trying to figure out why her birthday keeps repeating and what she must do to make it STOP!

It was REALLY cute... a book that I think boys and girls would like, though the cover DOES look a bit girly. :) I really enjoyed it! ( )

I did not like this as much as the rest of the Caudills I have read so far, but it was still pretty good. I thought it was a little slow to start with and I didn't particularly care for Leo which made it harder for me to buy into the story. While I think it was a good thing for Amanda to forgive him, I just didn't have as much sympathy for him as I think Mass wanted me to. Also I would have liked to know what Leo did to fix things with the kid who was giving him a hard time, but it was really Amanda's story so glossing over that was somewhat understandable. Once I got used to the narrator I thought she did a fine job with good voice differentiation among the characters. Listened to Scholastic Audio edition narrated by Kathleen McInerney. ( )

I had read a good review of this book, but to me, it was only worthy of an "eh". Not bad, not great, just okay. Somehow this book mustered up an Maine Student Book Award nomination in the 2010-2011 year. ( )

I liked this twist on a commonly used concept – the repeating day. Usually this type of plot is resolved by the hero or heroine selflessly helping all of the people in the town he or she is visiting when the day starts repeating itself. But in this novel, Amanda and Leo try helping everyone they meet, but it doesn’t change their fate. However, it does change their perspective on life, because they both discover that it feels good to help others, so the theme of “be kind to others” is still supported. Actually, I like the fact that even when they learn that helping others will make no difference to their own outcome, Amanda and Leo still continue to selflessly donate their time, because then they are helping out for no reward except the smiles of other people. Also, they both learn to take time for themselves and support their own passions. The first ten times the day repeats itself, Amanda goes to gymnastics tryouts after school even though she secretly would rather be auditioning for marching band. She attends the gymnastics tryouts for all the wrong reasons – to please her best friend Stephanie, to seem “cool” in the eyes of other people, and because she is afraid to play the drums in public. Even though she eventually makes the team during one of the repeat days, Amanda still learns that victory is hollow when your efforts are for the wrong reasons. When her birthday repeats itself for the eleventh time, she finally gathers her courage to try out for marching band, and follow her passions. This supports the theme of “do what you love” and don’t be afraid to pursue what you believe in. The constant repetition of the same day also allows Amanda to see the compassionate side of her sister, because it gives her the chance to pay attention to detail and the little actions her sister takes on behalf of Amanda even when her sister is going through a hard time, too. Even Amanda’s mom puts aside her concerns about the loss of her job to give Amanda a great birthday, while her dad tries to pretend (on every repeat of the day) that he is not as sick as he is really feeling. There is an overarching theme of family love conquers all, and when it matters, family is always there for each other, no matter what. Finally, friendship conquers all, because Amanda and Leo are able to set aside all their grievances and become close friends again. But they don’t do this because they have to be friends so the day stops repeating. Instead, it is the shared experience of repeating the day that reunites them in the first place, and their efforts to work together to solve the mystery of what is occurring that keeps them together and helps their friendship grow strong again. Thus, we know they will remain friends even when Saturday comes at last, not because they have to, but because they want to. I actually think it would be interesting if some of the story was written from the point of view of Leo, rather than completely from the first person point of view of Amanda. However, I can understand why the author may have though that would be a little bit too much repetition. Plus, we get plenty of insight into Leo’s side of the story from Amanda, so it works to use her point of view all the way through. This would be a very good read for 5th or 6th grade female students. Since it is from the point of an eleven year old girl, I do not think that older students or boys would like it much, though it may make for a good read aloud (since it is easier to retain interest during read aloud than to keep interest retained during read to self).