Finally

Finally is the second book in Wendy Mass’s middle grade Willow Falls series. It comes after 11 Birthdays and is followed by 13 Gifts, The Last Present, and Gracefully. Although most of these books have different protagonists, all of the stories take place in the peculiar, magical small town of Willow Falls and several characters overlap from book to book.

The novels are full of humor, charm, and whimsy. Their young protagonists have exciting adventures and rely on their own growing independence and friendships to reach their goals. Some of the books feature fantasy elements, while others are more realistic. The series is focused on themes related to growing up, such as learning to know oneself and the bonds of friendship. Each novel centers birthdays to symbolize the transitions each passing year brings.

In 11 Birthdays, protagonist Amanda experiences her 11th birthday over and over as she gradually finds a way to fix her broken friendship with Leo, who happens to share the same birthday. In 13 Gifts, a mysterious elderly woman—Angelina d’Angelo, whose prophecy guides the plot of Finally—insists that Tara collect 13 strange things before her 13th birthday. During her adventures, Tara meets Rory—the protagonist of Finally—and Amanda and Leo from 11 Birthdays. In The Last Present, Amanda and Leo travel through time to various birthdays to rescue a younger girl named Grace, who has fallen into a kind of coma. In the most recent Willow Falls novel, Gracefully, Grace’s friends—including recurring characters Amanda, Leo, Rory, and Tara—help her learn to use her magic to protect Willow Falls.

The series structure of the Willows Falls books allows Mass to explore many different perspectives. In 11 Wishes, the reader gets to know Amanda and Leo well—but in Finally, they are minor characters in the background of Rory’s story. For readers of the complete series, Rory’s perspective on Amanda and Leo adds new dimensions to their characterization. Each protagonist offers a new point of view on series motifs: birthdays, living in a small town, growing up, friendship, and identity. This is especially true when Tara first comes to Willow Falls in 13 Gifts. She is an outsider, so her experience of Willow Falls and its inhabitants is fundamentally different than that of lifelong residents.

This episodic structure is popular in young-adult and middle-grade series. A classic example of a fantasy series with shifting protagonists is C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, which Rory refers to in Chapter 1 of Finally. Like the Willow Falls books, what unites the Narnia books is a magical setting. There is, again, a relatively consistent cast of characters—primarily the four Pevensie children who are introduced in the first book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe—but there is no consistent main character from book to book within the series.