11 Birthdays (Wendy Mass)

Hardcover

Amanda and Leo were born on the same day to different parents and have celebrated every birthday together since.  When, on their tenth birthday, Amanda overhears Leo dismissing their friendship as being simply out of pity for her, the friendship blows up, seemingly irreparable.

One year later, Amanda's 11th birthday, her first celebrated without Leo, is awful.  Her dad's sick, her mom gets fired, her sister is rejected by the boy she likes, she's humiliated during gymnastics tryouts, and her birthday party is boring and ill-attended.  So when she wakes up the next morning to find it's her birthday again, she's less-than-thrilled and more than a little freaked out. When she discovers that Leo is also aware of their repeating birthday, they band together to figure out what's going on and how to fix it.

Basically a rip-off of Groundhog Day, with a bit of magic dust -- but it's almost like an outline of a story than anything that feels completely fleshed out.  A quick read that may be enjoyed by pre-junior-high readers, but truly not much here.

C-

The Trolls (Polly Horvath)

Hardcover

Both delightful and thought-provoking -- the kind of book that I'm sad to have discovered long after my children (19 & 20) are too old for nights of reading aloud.  I guess it'll just have to wait for eventual grandchildren!

Aunt Sally, a never-met relative, is called upon as a last-minute replacement for a sick babysitter.  She's in charge of Melissa, Amanda and Pee Wee while their parents vacation for a week and tells them story after story about her girlhood (and, consequently, their father's boyhood) on Vancouver Island.

It's silly fun while also managing to squeeze in some sad observations about sibling dynamics and how even a tight-knit family can splinter apart.  A terrific book.

A-