eleven by patricia reilly giff


Imagine you struggle with reading.
Imagine coming across a story in an old newspaper
in which you can only recognize the word
"MISSING"...
and a picture of yourself as a toddler.
Imagine how your life would change
if the story was about your childhood kidnapping.

On the eve of his eleventh birthday, Sam does what he does every year- searches for his birthday presents. This year however, what began as adolescent impatience turned into a mystery of epic proportions. He didn't find his birthday presents, but he did find a newspaper clipping that makes Sam believe that he was involved in a kidnapping at a young age. In addition to his fear that his entire life as he knows it- his relationship with his grandfather, the death of his parents, the role of his neighbors and extended family in his past-has all been a lie, Sam's difficulty with reading is preventing him from getting the whole story from the newspaper. In order to help him uncover the truth about his past, Sam decides he must find someone he can trust to help him read the article and keep his secret.

The day after his alarming discovery, Sam is assigned to work on a project with Caroline, the new girl in school who is constantly reading. Upon talking with Caroline, Sam realizes that he needs to befriend her because her loner status and love of reading made her just the person Sam needed to help him in his investigation. What begins as a forced partnership for a school assignment, blossoms into a strong friendship that is threatened by Caroline's nomadic existence. Her parents are planning on moving her again and both Caroline and Sam are afraid that they won't figure out the mystery of his past before it's time for her to leave town.

As he learns more about her lack of family stability, Sam begins to realize that the life he has been living and the family he has been living it with is actually pretty good. There is Mack, his grandfather who has loved and supported him for as long as he could remember; Onji, Sam's neighbor and the deli owner who makes lunch for him everyday; and Anima, Sam's other neighbor who reads to him each night. Meanwhile, Sam's dreams and vague memories are growing more frequent and the number eleven, which appears in them, is becoming more and more ominous. What could this number represent? Would he and Caroline be able to figure it out? Is Sam's only "true" family actually his family at all?

Although Patricia Reilly Giff focuses on an uncommon problem as the basis for the main conflict, the characters and the search for self-identity are what make the book worth reading for readers between grades 5 and 9. There is the bond between Sam and his grandfather, the close knit relationship that Sam shares with both Anima and Onji and the formation of an unlikely friendship between Sam and Caroline. Sam's search for his identity is also evident in the development of his woodworking skills, his determination to improve his reading skills and his search for the truth about his past. Eleven would be an excellent choice for reluctant boy readers because it addresses the problem head on through Sam's aversion to reading because of his difficulty with it. In addition, the book examines ways for these reluctant readers to approach their own reading difficulties by getting help from people who care: family, teachers and friends. Eleven is a great read for those students who may not realize just how common reading problems actually are.