Finally — Wendy Mass

--> Get a cell phone.
--> Stay home alone.
--> Go to the mall with best friends. No parents.
--> Wear makeup.
--> Get contact lenses.
--> Attend a boy-girl party.

Rory Swenson has been waiting her whole life to turn twelve. And she's got a list to prove it. Whenever Rory asks her parents for something, they always say, "When you're twelve, when you're twelve, when you're twelve . . ." Well, in exactly 18 hours, 36 minutes, and 52 seconds, it will finally happen. Rory's life will officially begin!

Fun, funny, and full of surprises, this is a story about wanting to grow up even when the universe seems to be telling you to wait.

I'm a big, wisher, I'll wish on anything. Shooting stars, stray eyelashes, dandelion tops, coins in fountains. Birthday candles (my own and other people's). Even when my glasses fog up. When I was younger, the wishes used to vary. A pony. A best friend. A new bike with streamers on the handles. A baby brother or sister. Some of these even came true (not the pony). But over the past year, every wish has been spent wishing I was twelve already, a date I've waited for my whole life and one that is only six weeks away. Looking back, I wish I had saved one of those wishes because, if I had, I wouldn't be stuck in this drainpipe right now.

Yes, drainpipe.