11 Birthdays: A Wish Novel

“‘Being born on the same day is very special. I believe Amanda and Leo will be the best of friends.’ She said this very confidently. ‘You will be sure to celebrate this day together every year, no? The day of their birth?’”

Angelina initiates the tradition that Leo and Amanda share their birthdays. Her confidence that they’ll be best friends and her odd recommendation suggest that Magic and Fate, and the enchantment, will play a role in their lives.

“What I really want to say is, If you’re my best friend you’d tell me to try out for the marching band instead. But we both know that would never happen. Besides the fact that the marching band is considered uncool, I’ve never played my drums anywhere other than my own basement.”

This passage connects to the theme Friendship, Rejection, and Fitting In. Amanda has always been drawn to playing the drums and to music in general and secretly wants to play drums in the marching band, but she feels pressure to try out for the gymnastics team instead because gymnastics is considered cooler. The more authentic choice is for her to audition for the marching band rather than the gymnastics team. Through the enchantment, Amanda learns the importance of being her authentic self rather than following others so she’ll be more popular.

“I […] find myself staring at the bottom drawer. […] Inside is only one thing—my birthday party photo album. I used to love looking at them, but after last year, it was just too hard […]. Each year, Mom puts one picture in there.”

Amanda’s birthday album, which contains one photo from each of Amanda and Leo’s joint birthday parties, symbolizes their shared memories. This passage demonstrates how much Amanda misses Leo and mourns the breakdown of their friendship.

“‘Yeah, why do you still have your party with a girl, man?’ Vinnie Prinz asked. ‘It’s really lame.’ I hold my breath. Leo said, ‘Yeah, I know it’s stupid. My mom makes me.’”

Leo betrays Amanda when he pretends that he celebrates their birthdays together only because he is forced to. This is the conversation Amanda overhears that causes the breakdown of their relationship and initiates the enchantment.

“That night I took everything that reminded me of Leo out of my room. The hand-painted flowerpot was the first to go. Out the window, in fact. I heard it crash in the bushes below.”

Amanda throws the potted plant, a symbol of Leo and Amanda’s friendship, out of her bedroom window, but she cannot get rid of her sadness as easily. Later, Amanda will find the plant growing among the bushes below her window and restore it to her bedroom. When she does, she breaks the enchantment, and the newly repotted plant symbolizes their friendship’s new beginning.

“Stephanie heads directly for Ruby and sits down. They bend their heads together and start laughing about something, so I resist the urge to call out again. Instead, I slide down in my seat and pout.”

Amanda, grappling with Friendship, Rejection, and Fitting In, feels rejected and lonely on her birthday and worries that Stephanie is growing closer to the popular girls, such as Ruby. Through the enchantment, Amanda will learn to notice and appreciate the friends she does have, rather than looking for evidence that she is sidelined.

“I hear a table of girls talking about Leo’s party. Who’s going with who, who’s wearing what, what they got him as a gift. I can swear their voices cut off when they see me approach. I grit my teeth and hurry past their table.”

Amanda feels upset and rejected that many of her classmates are going to Leo’s party instead of hers. When she sees the other girls talking about his party, she feels unpopular, and she has a difficult time seeing the friends who have remained loyal to her. She also has a hard time seeing that Leo is being bullied and misses Amanda. Amanda continues to be concerned about Friendship, Rejection, and Fitting In.

“I hear Stephanie yell, ‘Come on Amanda! You can do it!’ But I can’t. I can’t do it. I’m totally frozen.”

Amanda freezes up when trying to execute the back handspring at the gymnastics tryout, and the elusive move symbolizes Amanda’s lack of confidence. This passage also foreshadows the scene when Amanda, overjoyed to be friends with Leo again, completes a back handspring in her yard. Until the two friends reconcile, she is frozen in time and in her growth as a person.

“The basement quickly empties. Struggling to choke back tears, I toss the used plastic cups into the garbage, one by one.”

When only eight of Amanda’s friends come to her party—and they leave her party for Leo’s—she feels betrayed. Even Stephanie leaves to join the other girls on the gymnastics team who are at Leo’s party.

“I bolt upright. It’s the SpongeBob balloon, waving happily at me.”

The SpongeBob balloon becomes a symbol of the reset of Amanda’s 11th birthday. Once Amanda understands that she is trapped in a time loop, the balloon’s reappearance each morning tells Amanda that the enchantment is still in effect.

“Mrs. Grayson turns onto our block and starts slowing down. ‘I don’t know much about Rex. He sure turned this town on end with the whole feud.’”

Mrs. Grayson refers to the feud between Ellerby and Fitzpatrick, which unaccountably ceased one day. Her comment alludes to the fact that the enchantment entrapping Amanda and Leo has a historical connection to their ancestors and that feuds can produce ripples that affect the larger community.

“I must have imagined that wink. This isn’t the first time that someone has behaved differently from how they did on my first eleventh birthday, but that was only if I did something different first.”

Leo turns around and winks at Amanda in their history class, letting her know that he, too, is stuck in the enchantment of repeating their 11th birthday. Leo and Amanda must work together to understand and break the enchantment.

“He squirms a little. ‘I can’t really explain it. They were hanging out in my room and those guys never wanted to hang out with me before. I didn’t want them to think my best friend was a girl.’”

Leo admits that he too struggles with Friendship, Rejection, and Fitting In as he acknowledges that he was rude behind Amanda’s back because he wanted to fit in with the popular boys in their grade. Both Leo and Amanda act inauthentically in order to fit in with their peers. Through their days stuck in the enchantment, they learn that they should be true to who they are.

“Being with Leo now makes me realize I never should have let a whole year go by.”

Leo and Amanda spend a day together, and each realizes how relaxed and happy they feel together. Amanda’s genuine connection with Leo contrasts with her relationship with Ruby because she doesn’t have to pretend or be someone she’s not. Because of The Power of Forgiveness, the two friends are able to reconnect and break the enchantment.

“I can tell by the way she’s holding her breath that she really wants me to say no. It wouldn’t be very good for our popularity ranking next year.”

Annie and Stephanie feel pressure to make choices that ensure their peers accept them. Stephanie nervously asks Amanda whether she will audition for the marching band because she’s concerned about their social ranking. Amanda must learn to overcome peer pressure by going to the marching band audition on her 11th birthday.

“‘That was my great-great-grandfather’s desk?’ ‘And that,’ she points at an old-fashioned record player, ‘is Mrs. Ellerby’s prized possession, her phonograph.’”

Amanda and Leo’s suspicions about their connection to their ancestors are confirmed when symbolic similarities emerge between the children and their great-great-grandparents. Leo’s great-great-grandfather liked writing, like Leo, and Amanda’s great-great-grandmother, like Amanda, liked music.

“Rumor has it on Harvest Day, the men were warned if they didn’t solve their differences, there would be consequences.”

Alluding to Magic and Fate, Angelica implies that Amanda and Leo are experiencing consequences, just as their ancestors did, because they haven’t resolved their differences. This piece of information is crucial to their understanding of the enchantment and how to end it.

“For endless days now, I have been harvesting my apples. Each time Harvest Day ends, it starts again.”

Leo’s great-great-grandfather’s journal confirms Leo and Amanda’s suspicions that their ancestors also experienced Magic and Fate as they were caught in a time loop just as Leo and Amanda are.

“One hour ago we shook hands like gentlemen and raised our glasses to a successful harvest. A new section starts on the next page. It happened! It is now the day AFTER Harvest Day.”

Leo and Amanda believe that they have figured out the solution to the enchantment: to toast their friendship as their ancestor did. Magic and Fate continues to play an important role in Leo and Amanda’s reconciliation, which mirrors their ancestors’ reconciliation.

“I suddenly understand something. I can do a back handspring […] I probably could have done it the first time. I was just scared. But it would take a lot more to scare me now, after everything I’ve been through.”

This passage demonstrates Amanda’s growth as she realizes that she has persevered through adversity once and can do so again with the gymnastics tryout. When she approaches the back handspring with this confidence, she executes it competently, if not perfectly.

“As I push open the door to the auditorium, the swell of music fills my ears. I smile.”

Amanda’s nervousness and reluctance about the gymnastics tryouts are contrasted with her authentic joy at reaching the music-filled auditorium. Although the reader doesn’t learn the results of the audition, it is implied that Amanda will be successful in her audition for the band.

“I pick it up gently and move it to its perch on top of my bookcase.”

The potted plant continues to symbolize the state of Amanda and Leo’s friendship. Amanda’s careful recovery of the apple plant sprung from the seed of their ancestors illustrates her renewed commitment to her friendship with Leo.

“To make sure we’re never out of touch, we can just mail each other these postcards every six months.”

Amanda’s gift of postcards demonstrates Amanda and Leo’s commitment to nurture their friendship through the rest of their lives. Because they have rekindled their friendship through The Power of Forgiveness they hope never to jeopardize the friendship again.