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Friendship List #1

11 Before 12

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Fans of Lauren Myracle and Wendy Mass will love acclaimed author Lisa Greenwald’s new duology about two best friends who kick-start middle school with a bucket list of eleven things they need to do to become AMAZING before their joint twelfth birthday party.

The first day of middle school means trading in freeze tag at the pool for new schedules, fabulous outfits, and a fresh start. But for eleven-year-old Kaylan, the chaos of new locker combinations, cafeteria cliques, and potential first kisses is more than she can handle. She dreads the start of sixth grade and feels like she wants—no, needs—a winning game plan.

Luckily, Kaylan and her effortlessly chill BFF, Arianna, have a fool-proof plan for tackling transitions: a list of eleven things they need to do to totally transform themselves before they both turn twelve in November.

But between making guy friends, getting detention (and makeovers!), helping humanity, and having super-candid conversations with their moms about their flaws, the first 100 days of school turn out worse than Kaylan ever imagined. Kaylan and Ari forget to focus on their friendship and soon their loyalty to the list—what was meant to help them keep it together—becomes the very thing tearing their lives apart.

416 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2017

795 people are currently reading
1721 people want to read

About the author

Lisa Greenwald

37 books479 followers
A long bio can be kind of boring, so instead I'm going to pretend
that a famous journalist (maybe Barbara Walters) is interviewing me.
The only thing is, I'm making up the questions.
If you think of any other questions you'd like me to answer, send me an email and ask away!

Q. Where did you grow up?
A. I lived in Fairfield, Connecticut until the end of fifth grade and then I moved to Roslyn Heights, New York. That's on Long Island. But I don't have a bad Lawn Guyland accent, I promise.

Q. Do you have any siblings?
A. Yes, I have two younger brothers. I always wanted a sister, but it's kind of nice being the only daughter in the family, and my brothers and I are really close.

Q. What about the rest of your family? Are you close with them too?
A. Yes, family is really important to me. I talk to my parents and grandparents every day.

Q. Are you married?
A. Yes, to a fabulous guy named Dave. We met at sleep away camp when I was sixteen.

Q. Do you have any kids?
A. Yes, my daughter Aleah Violet Rosenberg was born on May 28th, 2010 and I personally think she's the cutest baby in the world, but of course I am biased.

Q. Do you have any pets?
A. I had a miniature toy poodle named Yoffi, but he died in 2007. I miss him so much.

Q. That's sad. Do you think you will get another dog?
A. I would love to adopt one very soon!

Q. What is your favorite book?
A. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt is my favorite book in the whole entire world. I read it in sixth grade in Ms. Mayer's class. I have read many books since then, but Tuck Everlasting is still my absolute favorite.

Q. What is your favorite movie?
A. I have two. Clueless and Avalon.


Q. What's one of the craziest things that's ever happened to you?
A. I won a radio contest at the end of eighth grade! Someone from Z100 called me up and asked me to say the "phrase that pays" and I answered correctly. I won a thousand dollars.

Q. Did you always want to be a writer?
A. No, not always. I wanted to be a hair stylist, then a concert pianist, then a rabbi. But I always loved making up stories, so I think writing is the perfect job for me.

Q. Where did you go to college?
A. I went to Binghamton University in upstate New York. I was an English major with a concentration in creative writing. It's reallllllllly cold in Binghamton. Then two years after I graduated college, I went to The New School to get my MFA in writing for children.

Q. You mentioned that you met Dave at sleep away camp. Did you really like sleep away camp?
A. YES! I loved it. I went to Eisner Camp in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. I would go back to camp forever if only I could. Sleep away camp is the best place in the world.

Q. Tell me some other things you really like.
A. Okay. Here's a short list: sleeping late, fancy hotels, reading and writing (duh!,) peanut m&ms, flip flops, sweatpants, people watching, New York City, cheese omelets, weddings, pedicures, looking at old pictures and re-reading old cards and letters.



Q. Tell me some things you really dislike.
A. Peas, mean people, rats and mice, sweating, pants and skirts with a side zipper, spicy food, uncomfortable shoes, people clipping their nails on the subway, feeling lonely or thinking about other people who might feel lonely.

Q. MY LIFE IN PINK & GREEN is about a pharmacy. Do you really like pharmacies?
A. Yes, I love them! I love the way they smell and the way the aisles are arranged. I love when the pharmacists know the customers and I love looking at all the beauty products.

Q. Do you write every day?
A. I try to, but in addition to writing I also work in the library at The Birch Wathen Lenox School in Manhattan. I love being around kids and books and talking to kids about books!

Q. I don't have any more questions. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
A. Just that I hope readers like my book, and I'd love to hear from all of them if they want to talk to me!

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5 stars
1,192 (46%)
4 stars
776 (30%)
3 stars
431 (16%)
2 stars
116 (4%)
1 star
50 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 221 reviews
Profile Image for Natalie S..
10 reviews2 followers
April 9, 2020
the second I read the information about this book I was hooked, but then I started reading the book. As an eighth grader I believe this quite an inaccurate assumption of how middle school girls live their lives. We don't say totes fab or duh, it just makes middle school like so stupid. In sixth grade we don't fantasize about basically anything these girls fantasized about. I thought it was interesting at some points like the idea that Ari and kaylan both grew apart then back together. But I feel like this is another story with an adult just trying way too hard to write in the mind of a kid.
18 reviews1 follower
Read
November 8, 2017
In 11 before 12 two friends are starting junior high school. But before they start junior though Kaylan and Ari (Arianna) want to accomplish some thing to show how they have grown over the summer, so they make a list. But they make the list with a catch, Ari and Kaylan convince themselves that is they don't finish the list before they turn twelve, they will be cursed for the rest of this life. What Ari and Kaylan didn't think about is how starting junior high might affect their friendship and them as people.
I think that a good theme for the book is, People shouldn't change themselves when things around them change. In think this is a good theme for this book because this whole book is about two girls change so they can fit in with other people around them. A example of this is, before school starts Ari and Kaylan convince their moms that they NEED highlights in their hair before school starts, and they so get highlights, another example is, Ari and Kaylan also decide that they need to do something they thing they will hate, and the final example of this is, during the summer Ari and Kaylan love to go to the pool, and the pool there is always a freeze dance, they always do the freeze dance, but one time girls were laughing at Kaylan and Ari, so Kaylan stopped doing the freeze dance because she was embarrassed.
I LOVED this book so much. I liked this book because it is practically what happens all the time to people, I have even had something like this happen to me, minus the whole list thing. I liked this book because it tells the story of two girls struggling to fit in and keep their friendship together and the same time. I also liked this because of how it has different perspectives in the book, its not just this one person complaining about what happened to them, it tells everyone's side to it, and i really like it when authors do stuff like that. I liked this book a lot and i would love to read it again.
Profile Image for Mia.
364 reviews15 followers
February 17, 2021
Two tweens talk (in length) about creating a list of what to expect when entering junior high.
I read this with my daughter, and even she was sick of it. She's not into boys yet, she's 11 ffs, and the main character acted as if she was in heat. The author dwelled on her fears without much resolution. She constantly repeated herself- I'm sure to be like a Dr. Seuss book for tweens, but it didn't work. My daughter wasn't impressed with their immature drama. She was wondering if they would actually try to accomplish something meaningful instead of being spoiled, self-centered brats.
We won't be reading anymore from this series or this author.
19 reviews
January 25, 2019
Was a very hooligans hilarious book! Great for readers in middle school and upper elementary.
Profile Image for Adalee.
3 reviews
November 25, 2019
11 before 12 is a great book about friendship. It tells about two friends that make a list of 11 things to do before they turn twelve. Not to mention, their first year of middle school! The book is an emotionally affecting, genuine crowd pleaser.
Profile Image for Kiran.
522 reviews1 follower
March 24, 2018
One of my favorite books ever!! 📚📚👍👍🙂
40 reviews5 followers
December 20, 2021
In this book Arianna and Kaylan make a list of 11 things that they want to do before they turn 12. Arianna starts making more friends so she doesn't talk to Kaylan very much. They end up becoming friends again and are able to do everything on their list. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially people who like realistic fiction.
19 reviews2 followers
September 17, 2019
11 Before 12 is an amazing book about friendship. Arianna and Kaylan have been best friends forever but middle school and making friends got in the way of their friendship and they get stuck in a friendship trap and don't know what to do.
35 reviews5 followers
December 29, 2018
This book was weird at some parts, but was a good book otherwise🐼🐼
Profile Image for Eliza Rasmussen.
8 reviews3 followers
October 18, 2021
11 before 12 by Lisa Greenwald is a book about friendship. It tells the story of 2 girls, Arianna and Kaylan, who are going in to middle school. They worry about how they're going to navigate their way through sixth grade and how they're going to be their best 6th grade selves. On their journey to finding themselves, they lose sight of one of the most important things, and it's right in front of them; their friendship. I love this book because it shows that if you're in a struggling friendship, there's still hope and you are your friend can still be friends. I also like this book because it's just so relatable to the reader. Lisa Greenwald makes it so easy to understand and relate to and even get frustrated when Kaylan and Arianna have yet another fight and are still not friends. I recommend this book if you like books about friendship, fighting for what you really want, and heartfelt journeys to find yourself and what you care about.
Profile Image for Seba Alghamdi.
10 reviews
November 11, 2021
You know, this could have been such and amazing book.
If only the just tried to make it a BIT less cheesy. It’s a great concept, and it could have been really meaningful. If they just didn’t only think about boys, getting kissed, and who’s popular and who’s not. Not a great message for girls of that age in my opinion.
Profile Image for isabella ♡.
53 reviews
Read
April 28, 2024
when i tell you how much i loved this book when i was younger!!😋💪🫶🩷🎀✌️🤪🤗🤭🥰
Profile Image for Beth Rodgers.
Author 12 books40 followers
July 31, 2017
'11 Before 12' by Lisa Greenwald will put you right back in that time of your life when everything mattered too much and nothing at all mattered more than your best friend. Kaylan and Arianna find this to be true as they gear up for sixth grade. They are chock full of excitement as they decide to make a list of all of the tasks they want to complete before turning twelve in November. Having their birthdays one day apart has convinced them of the need to plan a joint twelfth birthday party to celebrate their friendship and the new age that will bring them what they consider so much more of out of life.

Instead they find that the list starts to tear them apart. While Kaylan wants to stay true to the list and everything they've planned for it, including doing it together, Arianna is more open to bringing other people in and allowing them to be part of what Kaylan considers a super-special best-friends-only listing of tasks for the girls to share. While they do a few items together, they also find that they are finishing some separately. It was nice to understand Kaylan's point of view throughout the whole story since it is really quite a spot-on indicator of how any girl in her position would feel, worried about losing her best friend, but hopeful that things will eventually work out. However, hearing Arianna's point of view a bit more throughout would have been helpful. As the novel progresses, we learn more about how she feels about it all, but a dual look at their lives may have enhanced the storytelling a bit. Yet, this was not really an issue.

From Kaylan's worry over which boy to kiss and how to make a guy friend to Arianna's new girlfriends, lunch table gossip abounds, and the two are left sitting on the sidelines of each other's lives, waiting to be filled in with the nitty gritty details. Any reader will feel smack dab back in the action of middle school, as Lisa Greenwald creates the questions of how Kaylan and Arianna will move forward, how their troubles will affect their futures, and how family can matter more than a sixth grader believes, especially when on the outs with your best friend forever. A definite must read for any young adult and middle grade novel lovers!

Beth Rodgers, Author of 'Freshman Fourteen' and 'Sweet Fifteen,' Young Adult Novels
Profile Image for Maura.
781 reviews14 followers
July 15, 2019
Cute book for upper elementary students looking toward transitioning to middle school (which, in this book, starts in 6th grade). I appreciated that one of the main characters, Kaylan, was legitimately a jerk to her best friend and got stuck in not knowing both how to apologize for it and how to express how hurt she was by her friend. It illustrates well how small hurts can escalate into big rifts in otherwise strong friendships. I could see this being a really good read for a parent and child together (reading separately and then discussing) as it can be helpful to have these discussions about friendship drama while friendship waters are relatively smooth, before a kid hits the rapids of middle school.

While the friendship drama rang true, there were two things that felt really "off". The first was the focus on first kisses in the summer between 5th and 6th grade, and how every character seemed to be experiencing a first kiss that summer. Maybe I'm really old, but that strikes me as REALLY early, and I hate that a child may come away from the book expecting that this is the normal timeline for a first kiss and he or she are way behind the times. It also struck me as surprising that there wasn't a single LGBTQIA+ character or even a passing reference to acknowledging any differences in sexual orientation among the menagerie of friends. So many new middle grade books are more inclusive now, thankfully, but this one suck to an exclusively heteronormative cast of characters.

I really appreciated the inclusion of Kaylan's older brother's storyline of a descent into depression, crankiness, and despair because his supposed best friend is being incessantly cruel to him and putting him down. So often, people chalk up major personality changes in adolescent boys to just "boys being boys", which often hides legitimate trauma and pain the boys are experienced yet are socialized to "tough out" and never talk about. This can also open up conversations if this book is read with a parent.
Profile Image for aditi.
31 reviews
October 11, 2021
I loved this book when I was younger and I found it in my middle school's library, so I thought I'd read it again. I didn't like it as much as I loved it before.

⭐Summary ⭐
The book's about 2 best friends - Kaylan and Ari - who are nervous about starting middle school. To calm their worries, they create a list of 11 things they could/should do before they turn 12 (November) To top it off, Kaylan's brother's being a douche and there's plenty of drama happening that it just starts to be each of them doing the list on their own. Near the end, of course, there's a reunion.

This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Scarlett Adore.
2 reviews
February 7, 2023
The book was good. It painted a pretty stereotypical middle school life for a younger girl. It was cute and slightly suspenseful, with the right amount of comedy sprinkled in. I think that it was slightly unrealistic for an eleven year old, considering one of their goals was to kiss someone and get detention. I sound like a Karen, but I personally would never get caught near detention. Overall a 7/10.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Lisa Nagel.
748 reviews26 followers
August 5, 2017
A light sweet book that is a perfect summer read. It tackles many of the tween/starting middle school issues with humor, but some of it felt too stereotypical and cliche for me, but it still will likely be a popular and fun read that is very accessible to readers
Profile Image for Quinn Ashlyn.
9 reviews1 follower
Read
September 4, 2021
this book was about 2 teenage girls trying to survive middle school. They create a list to have the best year ever. But they have a fight and their friendship starts to grow apart. This was an amazing book, and I am excited to read the other books.
Profile Image for Melissa.
1,470 reviews
October 5, 2020
My daughter recommended this book to me. She told me I just had to read it because there was boy drama, friend drama, and brother drama. She was right on all three counts! While this was written for middle grade readers, it is pretty long, at around 370 pages. However, it goes by quickly and it is definitely a page turner. I could easily relate to Kaylan's middle school "agita". It's a period of my life that I never want to repeat. Thankfully, Kaylan had it much easier than I did and I could enjoy reliving that time vicariously through her. Even though she and her BFF got into a fight, I had a feeling they'd eventually make up and I wasn't too worried. (I was more worried that her brother would find out that she sabotaged him.) I've known my BFF since sixth grade and the friendship between Kaylan and Ari sometimes reminded me of our friendship (even as adults). I liked all the Jewish references, as well. I look forward to reading 12 Before 13 when my daughter finishes it.
Profile Image for Lexie Mbuu.
56 reviews
January 21, 2024
I liked this book, but I think the author tried too hard to think how 6th graders acted. I liked it in the beginning, but as I got closer to reading it, I just couldn't see why 6th graders in this book could be kind of dumb. I didn't act like this in 6th grade, and I don't think 6th graders today act like that either. For almost the entire book, it was Arianna being jealous of Kaylan having new friends, then Arianna gets a new friend named Marie, and then Kaylan and Arianna fight. In my opinion, it is dumb why you would waste your school year for almost 2 months trying to apologize to your best friend. I think you should apologize right away to your best friend instead of wasting almost 2 months trying to.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Chloe.
85 reviews
November 26, 2023
One of the best books I have ever read it is relatable it’s about these two girls who are best friends they are in six grade and they make a list of 11 things they want to do before there 12th birthday I love the message this book says it says that no matter what happens true friends will always be there for you because they had a fight they didn’t talk for a month then they talked again and went back to best friends again they just drifted apart I think that when you drift apart from someone if they were really your true real friend that you will find them again because that happened to me again this doesn’t always happen. I love this book I would recommend it to any preteen/teen
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
12 reviews
October 28, 2019
“11 before 12” written by Lisa Greenwald is a book I personally loved to read. The two main characters Kalyan and Arianna are best friends. I feel like I can relate to this story because me and my best friend made a list of things to do over summer before school starts. This book is a great story about friendship. I recommend this book to teenage girls.
1 review
September 4, 2017
Its a good book I liked it especially since I'm 11 and the book was realistic
3 reviews
April 29, 2020
This was probably the best book I’ve ever read!!!!!! The storyline is perfect, and I understood all they were going through. I will definitely be reading the whole series. 😊
Profile Image for zosia.
60 reviews2 followers
July 6, 2023
dnf

zaczelam czytac 2.5 lata temu bo mialam 10książek na krzyż😁😁
Profile Image for Lacey Anderson.
6 reviews1 follower
December 1, 2023
There is no way other junior high kids didn’t like this book as much as I did when I was 11.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for addie??.
60 reviews
Read
July 6, 2024
I read this when I was in fourth grade & the characters seemed SO SO OLD & now they’re little babies 😭😭
Displaying 1 - 30 of 221 reviews

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