Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I spent this morning at a PTA training and yesterday at the school helping with registration, because guess who’s the PTA treasurer at our elementary school this year? (A friend asked, and I couldn’t say no–she’s been treasurer and possibly president and has done more than her share of volunteering.) And while I totally meant to review Wendy Mass’s 11 Birthdays on the 1st, I actually finished it late enough that my writing brain had clicked off for the night. And so–tonight! Really, if you convert “Groundhog Day” into the kind of Disney Sunday night movie that I remember from my childhood, you totally have 11 Birthdays. Amanda is engaging and likable, and her repeated journeys through her 11th birthday differ in interesting ways. There’s a small town family history element that reminded me of Gary Schmidt’s The Sin Eater, if The Sin Eater were breezy and light instead of heartbreakingly, poignantly beautiful. (If you haven’t read it, you need to. SO BEAUTIFUL.) At any rate, I’m hoping my almost-thirteen-year-old will be entertained by Mass’s first ‘Willow Falls’ novel.

If you’ve read it, what did you think?