Fans of Lauren Myracle and Wendy Mass will adore the second book in this hilarious series about two BFFs who master middle school with a list of twelve goals they MUST achieve before their thirteenth birthday. Inspired by the success of their first birthday bucket list, Ari and her BFF Kaylan set twelve new goals for the next school year. And number one is “keep our friendship strong.” But after a life-changing summer at camp, Ari feels torn between Kaylan and her camp friends. And as she faces down everything from boys to bat mitzvahs, Ari needs to figure out how to be her best self— before her friends come together at her thirteenth birthday party. Or the big win she and Kaylan were hoping for may become an epic fail.
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!
I thought this book was really good! I also read the first book, and loved that one too! There are too main characters called Ari and Kalayan. In the first book Kalayan was telling her story, and in this book Ari was. I defiantly recommend these books.
I was a great book, this series gives you a look inside two friends lives. This is the second book of the series ad I can't wait to read the third. The book is something you can relate to. It is about two girls going into middle school as best friends, but in each book they battle jealousy, and struggle to keep the friendship strong.
(Comments copied from Children's Books discussion:)
Well there's certainly plenty of Judaism in 12 Before 13. In a couple of places the book seems downright evangelistic. All of these people are either perfect or nearly so: kind, optimistic, aware, etc. Which actually makes for a refreshing read compared to so much realistic fiction for MG now that's all about issues like cancer, poverty, war etc.
It's a good book, but very hyper & emotional. I don't know but that I'm thankful I didn't have daughter if they're all about mood swings and competitions for BFF status and exclamation marks.... But of course they're not. This is basically a more dramatic version of the Alice stories by Naylor and it does focus on Ari and her girlfriends just for a few months around the start of seventh grade.
Here's a sample of the kinds of things Ari thinks about & processes, and the voice in which she expresses them:
"Everyone is Humpty Dumpty after they stay up all night. It's a fact."
I'm glad that I read this. I do feel like I know more about young teen girls and about Judaism. I don't feel the need to read others in the series.
Another cute and easy read. This time it's from Ari's perspective. I enjoyed seeing the friendship with Kaylan from her side. Even though things weren't always perfect with the friends in their group, I still was jealous of how generally easy it was for Ari to not only make friends at camp, but also meet a boyfriend. I never had it that easy in middle school! I enjoyed reliving that time vicariously through her. I felt bad about her parents' situation though and I hope that gets resolved soon. I also cried happy tears at the end. I liked all the Jewish elements of the story, since a lot of the focus was on Ari's Bat Mitzvah and some discussions with her cantor. I could relate about being proud of all the effort that was put into the service. I look forward to reading 13 and Counting soon.
This is a great book the other book was also great. I can't wait to read the next book. This book has a lot of drama. And there is a lot of good juicy parts. I recommend this book it is so good.
This book is good! I enjoyed reading it a second time. The book is mainly about two young bffs who make a list together of all the things they want to accomplish before they turn 13. The whole 11 before 12 series (so far, I am currently reading the 3rd book) have been great books about friendship and loyalty!
This book is much better than the first, but I don't really like how Arianna has changed too much in this book just because she went to camp for one summer. Also, keeping your friendship strong with your best friend is, in my opinion, almost impossible. You and your best friend are probably almost always going to fight. That's just how friendships work. Also, the thing with PF and TH friends, that's just crap because you can't tell your best friend everything. That's also not how it works. Also, I don't like how Arianna doesn't like talking about periods. It's a normal girl thing to talk about. I think Arianna only stays in that friend group because Kaylan is in that group. The only reason she can't leave is because she's afraid of what Kaylan is going to say. But guess what?! She literally has a whole new camp friend group to talk to! I like Golfy, aka Jonah in this book. He is really nice. Also, I like doing nicknames for my friends, but the way the camp girls are so over the top with nicknames drives me crazy!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I think a good theme for this book is it is good to feel proud of your self when you achieve something you always wanted to. I think that is a good theme for this book because in the story to best friends make a goal list to do before they turn 13 and there was a lot of things on the list. The girls managed to achieve all those goals before they turned 13 and they were so happy about it.
In this book Arianna and Kaylan make a list of 12 things to do before they turn 13. Arianna is at summer camp when the book starts, and she really enjoys it. When she comes back home Kaylan is close friends with other people. Arianna feels like Kaylan and her other friends don’t want to do anything with her so she isn’t friends with them for a while. She ends up being friends with them again and they all go to a Halloween party. While this is going on she is really stressed because her dad lost his job and they don’t have a lot of money to pay for her bat mitzvah. Her dad never talks and her mom is always really stressed because he lost his job. Arianna tries to act like she is calm because everyone else is really stressed. She realizes that she can’t be calm all the time and that she needs to be okay with being stressed. After she realizes this she is a lot happier. She ends up having a really fun bat mitzvah party that Kaylan planned. I liked this book more then the first one because it in Arianna’s perspective and I can relate to her more. I would recommend this book to anyone!
*sigh* It literally had the same concept of the previous book. It was the same exact book as the last one just Ari's point of view, which was no different then Kaylan's. The list was less interesting than the last one and it seemed easier, too. I don't think im gonna read the next one. Im assuming it will just be like the past two books. The romance wasn't even heartwarming. It was just like there. And Ari and Kaylan just don't go together, I mean they keep having the same fight over and over again. I'll give it a 2.3.
I love this book because this is the life of a preteen Turing into a teenager and how Arianna and Kaylen stay strong to keeping their friendship strong and how they fight and come back together because at the end of the day we all need a friend by our side
This book shows love and embraces what friendship is all about. It takes realism and accuracy to the next level and it is even better than the first one, which is hard to believe. Lisa Greenwald has a way of making everything fit into place and I feel as if I've known every character for pretty much ever. As a tween, this book tells me what to expect and how to embrace it and how to face real life and middle school.
I liked this book because I liked how everything was written. It was a really good book and it was different than what I usually read. I would read this again because I liked how different the friends are but they are still a good group of friends. I would recommend this book because over all this was a very good book.
In this book Arianna and Kaylan make a list of 12 things to do before they turn 13. Arianna is at Jewish sleep away summer camp during the summer before seventh grade, when the book starts, and she really enjoys it. When she comes back home Kaylan is close friends with other people. Arianna feels like Kaylan and her other friends don’t want to do anything with her so she isn’t friends with them for a while. She ends up being friends with them again and they all go to a Halloween party. While this is going on she is really stressed because her dad lost his job and they don’t have a lot of money to pay for her bat mitzvah. Her dad never talks and her mom is always really stressed because he lost his job. Arianna tries to act like she is calm because everyone else is really stressed. She realizes that she can’t be calm all the time and that she needs to be okay with being stressed. After she realizes this she is a lot happier. She ends up having a really fun bat mitzvah party that Kaylan planned. I also read the first book, and loved that one too! There are two main characters called Ari and Kalayan. In the first book Kalayan was telling her story, and in this book Ari was. I enjoyed seeing the friendship with Kaylan from Ari’s side. Even though things weren't always perfect with the friends in their group, I still was jealous of how generally easy it was for Ari to not only make friends at camp, but also meet a boyfriend. I never really had but I actually secretly wanted it that easy in middle school! I felt bad about her parents' situation though and I hope that gets resolved in the next book. I liked all the Jewish elements of the story. A good amount of the focus was on Ari's Bat Mitzvah and their discussions with her cantor. I’m not Jewish by any means but i have always wanted to be because i love their religion and i really wanted a bat Mitzvah when i turned 13 because it’s exactly like sweet 16 but it’s 13. I liked this book more than the first one because it’s in Arianna’s perspective and I can relate to her more. I look forward to reading the rest of the series but i am sad that the adventures with Ari and Kalyan are almost over. I am really sad that there is no 13 before 14 because i would love it if Lisa greenwald wrote a 1 3 before 14 because 11 before 12 and 12 before 13 i tried to read 11 before 12 before i turned 12 and 12 before 13 before i turned 13.
This book was great! I am a big fan of books just about a girls life. No problem or solution or climax. This novel was perfect for that. I thought that Golfy seemed like a really nice guy. So did all of her camp friends- Hana, Zoe, and Alice. But Kaylan seemed a little jealous. I mean, Kaylan seemed like a good best friend, but honestly, Alice seemed nicer. The Lunch Table Girls- some of them seemed nice, some of them didn't. Cami and Marie seemed nice, but I'm not too sure about the others. Lizzie didn't even invite Arianna to her bat mitzvah. And she also wasn't invited to the ice cream date. One other thing that annoyed me- these people just drove past Ari's house and decided they fell in love with it an asked to buy it. That doesn't make much sense to me. Also, when Arianna's dad lost his job and they were struggling, he could've gotten a part time job while he waited, or her mother could take a job. Anyway, overall this was a pretty good book- much better than her text novel books, in my opinion.
If I had to pick a side in book one, it would've been Kaylan. But after I read this one, I'm realizing that Kaylan is kind of a jerk. This book takes place in Ari's world. It starts at Camp Silver summer camp. Ari had the best summer of her life there! But it ended to soon. As Ari rode home on the bus, she cried, and didn't want the summer to end. After a while of "Back at Home" life, Kaylan and Ari start working on their 12 before 13 list. It's a tradition for them now!!! But troubles with the List, bat mitzvah planing (for Ari), and even their friendship itself, cause the girls to get torn apart again. But don't worry!!! The List brings them back together (again).
I rate this book 4.3 out of 5 stars, and ages 10+ (they talk a lot about boobs)
Next to read? The Creakers, By Tom Fletcher
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
~Zacznę od tego, że zazwyczaj nie czytam takich książek więc nie jestem ekspertem w tej dziedzinie. Jest to lekka i przyjemna młodzieżówka, przedstawiająca problemy jakie nastolatki mogą napotkać w przyjaźni.
~Zadziwiająco dużo dowiedziałam się z tej książki na temat żydowskich tradycji. Przedstawiona jest tam bat micwa, czyli przejście dziewczynki w okres dorosłości. Jest to coś zbliżonego do chrześcijańskiego bierzmowania. Jednak podczas bat micwy dziewczynka sama odprawia większość mszy, pisze własną mowę na temat wiary z odwołaniem do wybranego fragmentu Tory. Ten wątek zaciekawił mnie dużo bardziej niż przypuszczałam, gdyż po raz pierwszy się z tym spotkałam.
~Głównym wątkiem jest przyjaźń Arianny i Kaylan, tak jak w pierwszym tomie. Mierzą się one z różnymi trudności. Ari wraca z obozu, gdzie poznała nowych przyjaciół do Brookside, w którym mieszka Kaylan. Ona również zacieśniła więzi z kim innym. Z tego powodu wynika wiele problemów.
~Bardzo spodobała mi się ta książka, jednak denerwowało mnie to, że główne bohaterki nie mówiły sobie wszystkiego i okłamywały się, bo "tak było łatwiej". Powodowało to wiele sprzeczek. Nie lubię jeśli ludzie nie są ze sobą szczerzy, więc ten wątek nie przypadł mi do gustu. Odebrało to książce ok. 0,75 gwiazdki.
~Ostatecznie polecam tą książkę wszystkim fanom młodzieżówek. Z pewnością sięgnę po kolejny tom.
As a mom... I borrowed the audiobook of this so we could listen to it in the car (we always listen to audiobooks and I wanted to try something new and pulled this off of some book list). About 20-30 minutes in, I just had to veto this one. It may have been partly due to the narration (super ditzy narrator voice did not help) but it was just so vapid I couldn't stand it. An actual pre-teen might love it (going by the reviews here) but if you're an adult looking for something you can enjoy with your child I would skip this one.
(We switched to 'Words on Fire' so we could read drama about people with actual problems, and my kids loved that one and I didn't lose my mind listening to it.)
12 Before 13 by Lisa Greenwald was a very good book. This book was from the perspective of Arianna and her Bff Kaylen who were 2 girls who just wanted to make it thru middle school while trying to keep their friendship alive while also handling the problems of becoming a teenager. This book was really good I loved this book even more because at the time I read this book I was entering middle school so this book gave me loads of advice on how to survive middle school and stay true to yourself. I recommend this book to anyone entering or in middle school because this book is so relatable and helpful but it would also be good for anyone who loves reading books where it's in 1st person.
Personally, I didn’t think this book was as good as the first. Their friendship got all crazy for no reason. The drama was so fake, and as a middle school student myself, this book was not relatable AT ALL. The author did well and I like her fun perspective on a cute little middle school story, but I think she could’ve done a bit better on the realistic traits like in the first one. It was good don’t get me wrong, I just thought it could’ve been better. I rate this book a 3 out of 5 for these reasons.
This book is about 2 best friends named Kaylan and Ari that decide to make a list of 12 goals they must complete before they both turn 13, but they have to complete it apart for 8 weeks because Ari went off to a camp called Camp Silver. Once Ari comes back home from camp is she pressured with her bat mitzvah that every jew celebrates for their 13th birthday. In my opinion, I think this book is great because it shows true friendship. I would give this book 5 stars because it is funny and fun to read. The theme of this book is a friend is someone who makes it easy to believe in yourself.
This was a lovely read with a focus on friendship, identity and the role of religion in a young girls' life. A great follow up to 11 Before 12, and it was fantastic to read from Arianna's perspective after having read from Kaylan's perspective. Definitely one I can see many younger readers devouring!