Book-A-Day Almanac

Today marks Best Friends Day, a time to celebrate the BFF in your life. Nothing can be so wonderful in the life of a child as a best friend. And, conversely, nothing can be more terrible than a rift between them. I still wince with pain when I think about my “breakup” with my BFF in seventh grade. The exploration of best friends—and what happens when you stop speaking to each other—forms the premise of the book of the day, Wendy Mass’s 11 Birthdays.

Born on the same day, Amanda and Leo first meet in the hospital nursery. Then, a year later, they accidentally celebrate their first birthday together when both of their parents rent the same hall. From then on, the two form an incredible bond, and they delight in having joint birthday parties. Until they turn ten. Then, in a horrible incident, Amanda hears Leo tell some boys that she has no friends. She flees the party, and for an entire year the two do not talk.

All this background forms the prelude of what seems, at first, like a simple saga of friendship gone awry. Told from Amanda’s point of view, she narrates her eleventh birthday, horrible from beginning to end. She and Leo are not speaking so they have planned separate birthday events. And everything that can go wrong in Amanda’s day does: she tries out for but doesn’t make the gymnastics team; her mother gets fired; and all her friends leave her house early so that they can attend Leo’s much ritzier affair. But as her mother assures her, you only turn eleven once in your life.

Then both the reader and Amanda get a big surprise. The next day, she turns eleven again, with a repeat of the events. In fact, Amanda’s going to turn eleven, eleven times. And so does Leo. As Amanda makes choices for the do-over day, she begins to see how some produce better results. But the main choice involves Leo. Not until our two protagonists start talking, join forces, bury the wounds of the past, and become BFFs again does their curse lift. (An old woman, a fairy godmother of sorts, has been involved all along.)  In the process of learning to be true friends to each other, they also learn how to take the right action for themselves.

With great humor and profound understanding of the emotions of eleven-year-olds, Wendy Mass spins a page-turning story. Absolutely beloved by readers eight through twelve and the recipient of many awards selected by children, including Vermont’s Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, 11 Birthdays combines realistic fiction with a touch of magic and provides a totally satisfying ending. Readers have no doubt now that Amanda and Leo with be BFFs forever—if only not to repeat their birthday again and again.

So I hope you have time for your best friend today—and to read, or reread, this delightful novel.

Here’s a passage from 11 Birthdays: