Team Owl Review: Finally (11 Birthdays #2)

Title: Finally

By: Wendy Mass

You can pierce your ears when you're twelve. You can go to the mall with your friends when you're twelve. You can babysit little Timmy next door when you're twelve. You can get a cell phone when you're twelve. Hey, you can even ride in the front passenger-side seat when you're twelve .When you're twelve, when you're twelve, when you're twelve . . .         My name is Rory Swenson, and I've been waiting to turn twelve my whole life. In exactly 18 hours, 36 minutes, and 52 seconds, it will finally happen.            My life will officially begin.

Wow! This book was amazing! Where do I start? How about the beginning.

I have to admit, at first I didn’t know what to think about this book. I thought what could be so interesting about a girl stuck in a drain pipe? But little did I know what would be happening. Rory Swenson is an ordinary 11 year old girl counting down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until her twelvth birthday. To her, when you turn twelve you can pierce your ears, you can ride in the front seat, get a cell phone, wear makeup, attend boy/ girl parties, and basically get to have and do whatever you want.

So… Rory makes a list of everything she wants and keeps adding along the way until she reaches 12 wants or nessesities of life as Rory called it, split into two categories, an important, and a not as important but still very useful. Some of the things on her list include a cell phone, riding in the front seat, getting your ears pierced, getting a cute white fluffy bunny, attending her first boy/ girl party, and much, much more.

Alright now let’s get this show on the road. It all started on a field trip to the wildlife reserve. Rory decides to go rest on a rock because her legs were starting to get sore after all that standing and walking. Or what she thought was a rock. She sat down and SWOOSH! Rory got sucked into a drain pipe. I know your thinking how could a girl mistake a rock for a drain pipe? Now I don’t want to give any spoiler alerts so if you think I’m going to tell you anything, just move on. So now she’s stuck abandoned by her classmates until an old lady with white hair and a birthmark shaped like a duck that wiggles when she talks sees Rory. She helps her out, and tells her ‘You won’t get what you want, until you see what you need.” Now this sentence carries Rory on basically throughout the entire story, but she is skeptical on what it means.

My favorite event that happened in the story was a movie tryout to be an extra with starring teen sensation Jake Harrison! So of course, Rory and a few of her friends try out. I mean that’s just like walking into school and seeing Justin Bieber or whoever you totally dream about and getting the opertunity to be a movie star and get to meet that famous person.. 

Tryouts are in this cold dark gym that smells like sweat and has been in their middle school for years. The tryouts go fantastic for Rory and her friends.  Of course now you have to shave your legs, get your hair done, do your nails, get your ears pierced, and buy makeup in order to get the part of the movie while still impressing the famous Jake Harrison. That’s exactly what Rory does and if I was her, I would regret ever even trying out for the play. But Rory keeps going. She starts by shaving which is not a good idea for someone who is alone shaving for the first time. After that tragic accident, Rory keeps going hoping for something better.

Along the way, Rory does get a lot of the things on her list but everything goes wrong. In the end, Rory realizes, she hasn’t gotten what she wanted, because she hasn’t seen what she needed. This is a warming, book on friendship, and love. Mainly suitable for girls ages 10-13. Or for people that just want to have a funny but serious book to fulfill your taste buds with the joy of reading. But I have to warn you…Warning This Book May Cause You to Never Stop Reading Due To Its amazing Events, Details, Humor, And the Way It Connects to Many Peoples Lives!!!

          Tell the world! This book is here. Share it. Read it. Achieve It. I hope this story is here generation after generation        so millions of billions of people can experience the joy of not only reading this book, but the many books to come.               

This book is truly amazing. When I read this, every page I would stop and say, ‘that sounds like me.’ I really connected with this book in a feeling type of way, and events that have happened to me and Rory. Praise the author Wendy Mass for creating these awesome books. She has a wide variety of amazing books that I would recommend to anyone. I hope you truly connect with this book as much as I did.