43 pages • 1 hour read
Wendy Mass11 Birthdays: A Wish Novel
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
Amanda is confused when her alarm goes off (she thinks that it is Saturday morning) and is surprised to see the SpongeBob balloon in the middle of her room—she had put it in the closet the night before. Her sister is getting ready for school, and her mom wishes her a happy birthday, tells her to get dressed for the bus, and mentions her upcoming birthday party that night. Amanda, thinking that they are all tricking her, gets back in to bed. Her mother comes in and tells her to get up. In the kitchen, her dad, who has a cold, hands Amanda her schoolbag, which is heavy, just as it was on Friday morning—even though she remembers putting her books away in her locker at the end of the day.
At the bus stop, Amanda asks Kylie if she is sure that it is her science project under her arm, or whether it is their mom’s project, but Kylie dismisses her concern. The bus arrives; all is as it was the day before, including Stephanie sitting with Ruby, her decorated but jammed locker, and even the detritus on the floor around her locker. Amanda is confused—she wonders whether she dreamed of the events of the day before. She does the same pop quiz in history but decides to get the same question wrong even though she knows the right answer; she is scared to do anything differently.
Before her birthday party, Amanda puts on the Dorothy shoes. They hurt more because she has blisters on her feet from wearing them the previous night. The blisters prove to her that she didn’t just imagine the previous day. She endures her birthday party again, notices a few people slipping out this time, and listens to her mom tell her about losing her job.
Chapter 8 Summary
Amanda wakes up, hoping that it’s Saturday, but the sight of SpongeBob in the middle of her bedroom tells her that it’s Friday—her birthday—again. She touches her heels; the Band-Aids over the blisters confirm to Amanda that the last two days definitely happened. Not wanting to repeat the awful day at school, Amanda pretends that she’s feeling sick so that she can stay home. Her mom says that she will call the parents to cancel her birthday party.
Amanda tells her dad that her birthday is repeating itself, and that she has already lived it twice through. Her dad comforts her that the fight with Leo has been hard on her—she concludes that he obviously doesn’t believe her about time repeating.
Amanda goes into Kylie’s room and reads her sister’s latest diary entry, where she bemoans her boring appearance and the fact that Dustin doesn’t seem to like her. Kylie writes that she plans to ask Dustin to the dance. Stephanie calls Amanda after she snuck into the guidance counselor’s office to use her phone. Stephanie sees that Leo has an appointment with the guidance counselor after school. She asks if Amanda is intentionally missing gymnastics tryouts because she wants to audition for the marching band instead (Amanda plays the drums, but only does so by herself at home). Amanda insists that she is sick.
Amanda goes into the backyard to try to do a back handspring. Mrs. Grayson arrives and clears her throat.
Chapter 9 Summary
Mrs. Grayson takes Amanda to the doctor; the doctor concludes that she isn’t sick. As Mrs. Grayson drives Amanda home, she tells Amanda that their families have been friends for a long time and that Amanda’s great-great-grandfather started a feud in Willow Falls.
Kylie gets home and tells Amanda that Leo stopped her in the hall and asked after Amanda, saying that she missed their pop quiz. The family has pizza for dinner. Kylie gives Amanda a diary for her birthday, and her parents give her gift cards to her favorite stores. She puts SpongeBob out the window, desperately hoping that it will be Saturday when she wakes up.
Chapter 10 Summary
Amanda wakes up to another Friday. She remembers her lunch that day. At the bus stop, Amanda tells Kylie that Dustin won’t want to go to the dance with her because he likes Alyssa. Kylie is upset that Amanda obviously read her diary and upset that Dustin isn’t interested in her.
Amanda notices that the bus driver has a duck-shaped birthmark on her face.
Everything at school continues in the same way until history class. Leo doesn’t have his head in his hands like he’s failed the test. He turns and winks at Amanda and asks to go to the bathroom, passing Amanda a note on his way that wishes her “HAPPY BIRTHDAY (for the fourth time!)” and tells her to meet him outside the cafeteria (102).
Leo reveals that is also stuck repeating the day; he worked out the day before when she didn’t turn up for their quiz that she was in the same situation, as she is the only one whose behavior changed. He arranges to come to her house after their birthday parties to work out what’s happening. He also tells her that he regrets what he said the previous year, but Amanda insists that they are still not friends. She pulls him out of the way of a classroom door before it swings open and the crying boy who forgot his assignment appears again.
Chapter 11 Summary
The humiliation of the gymnastics tryout is easier to handle that day. Amanda isn’t as disappointed at her small birthday party turnout because she expects it. She even tries to make it more fun by organizing games. Kylie is upset with Amanda for reading her diary and doesn’t dress up or come down to the party.
Mrs. Ellerby furiously asks why Amanda would crumple her work presentation and throw it in the trash; Kylie smiles at Amanda behind their mother, and Amanda realizes that Kylie has set her up. Amanda’s mother, upset and angry, grounds Amanda. Leo comes over but Mrs. Ellerby won’t let him go up to see Amanda because Amanda is grounded for throwing away her presentation.
Amanda is excited for the next morning to arrive so she can correct her mistakes.
Chapter 12 Summary
Feeling cheerful, Amanda gets up. She remembers her lunch, and also remembers to point out to her mom that she’s accidentally holding Kylie’s science poster, not her work presentation.
On the bus, Amanda stands up and waves at Stephanie, who comes to sit with her. They arrive at her decorated locker. Amanda asks who did it, and Stephanie, who pretended that she did the previous days, admits that she doesn’t know. Leo arrives and says that he decorated her locker. When Stephanie leaves, Leo explains that Stephanie took credit for the locker on previous days because she felt bad about not sitting with Amanda on the bus. Amanda and Leo arrange to skip their second period classes and meet in the courtyard.
Chapters 7-12 Analysis
Amanda and Leo experience the effects of Magic and Fate as the enchantment locks Amanda and Leo into repeating their 11th birthdays. The first hint of the strange magic is in the SpongeBob balloon: “I spy something moving in the corner of my room. I bolt upright. It’s the SpongeBob balloon” (57). The balloon, which Amanda shoves into her closet at the end of her first 11th birthday, becomes a symbol of the repeating pattern of her birthday. It reliably arrives back in the middle of the room to symbolize that the confusing reset has occurred—even after Amanda shoves it out of the window. Furthermore, Amanda’s blistered (and then blistered and bandaged) heels confirm that the previous two birthday parties occurred because the red Dorothy shoes cause the blisters; she realizes “this is no dream or déjà vu” (72).
Mrs. Grayson’s comment about the historical feud suggests the presence of Magic and Fate; Amanda’s great-great-grandfather “turned this town on end with the whole feud” (86). Amanda’s enchantment is connected to something bigger than herself, and her repair with Leo has a symbolic significance with a historical connection to their Willow Falls ancestors. Angelina, who, in the exposition in Chapter 1 is established to have a “duck-shaped birthmark wiggling on her cheek,” appears on the third day as Amanda’s bus driver. That Amanda notices “that she has a birthmark shaped like a duck on her cheek,” is another hint of the fateful magic at work, which seems to be connected to Leo and Amanda’s friendship and their shared birthday.
Initially, the confusion of the perpetually repeating day terrifies Amanda. She doesn’t understand the Magic and Fate at work, and her “unease is starting to turn to fear” (65). She endures the distress of the gymnastics trials again, and it is “just as horrible as it was before” (67). Her party is no better, and this time she notices as her friends subtly slip out to go to Leo’s party. However, Amanda grows in agency in this section; she creates a new day for herself when she pretends to be sick. The magic allows Amanda to exert some control and ownership over the course of the day. She can alter her day, so she can also alter the circumstances that keep her trapped repeating it. Consequently, she realizes she can create a better evening for herself after her mother cancels her party: “pizza and a movie turns out to be a much better birthday than a costume party” (90). Furthermore, Amanda positively intervenes in the day on her mother’s behalf, drawing her mother’s attention to the fact that she has the wrong poster for her work presentation. This section is a turning point for Amanda, who learns she can take control of her life. Instead of having her life shaped by others’ actions and words, she can make choices that positively affect her experiences.
When Leo passes the pop quiz in history, he, too, begins to exert control over the course of the day. Leo’s wink at Amanda shows her she’s not alone in the time loop; Leo is also stuck in the enchantment. Through this teamwork, they will repair their friendship, and both will learn The Power of Forgiveness.
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By Wendy Mass
