When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Genre 6 - Fiction, Fantasy, and Young Adult Literature

"Read one of the following Newbery Award winners/honor books"

Plot Summary

Miranda is a rather average twelve year old girl dealing with shifting friendships and loyalties in middle school. At home, her mother is preparing for a game show appearance with Miranda's help. Miranda has also received several mysterious notes telling her to do certain things, among which is to write down everything that happened. This is her description of everything that happened. Miranda documents such things as the mysterious appearance of a crazy laughing man on the route to school, the loss of her best friend, her mother's invitation to the game show, and details about her lunch-hour job at a nearby sandwich shop. As Miranda discovers the origins of the notes, she also regains her best friend and gains insight into the world of the laughing man and then puts it all down in her written account and delivers it to the right time-traveling person so it can all happen just as it's written.

Critical Analysis

The conversational format of this book is intriguing at first. Addressed to a mysterious "you", the language is accessible. It feels as though the narrative is the letter mentioned in the first pages, but the actual letter is not included within the book itself. Nevertheless, it reads as if it is an epistolary novel due to the early and consistent mention of writing a letter to "you".

While at first the book just seems as if there is an odd mystery behind it, we soon find the mystery is far greater than average. Time travel has been brought into play in the book in such a subtle way that it might just sneak past the radar of those who dislike science fiction long enough to hook them into the story. The climactic rescue scene finally reveals who the mysterious "you" is that our narrator has been addressing.

The shifting loyalties of middle school are portrayed accurately here, with just the right mix of sappy and sinister motivations behind the characters' actions. Our narrator bounces around between replacement best friends just as quickly as things actually happen in middle school.

Connections

Learn more about physics and the possibility of time travel through more fiction.

The Time and Space of Uncle Albert by Russell Stannard
George's Secret Key to the Universe by Stephen Hawking and Lucy Hawking
Read Miranda's favorite book, which also won a Newbery Award.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Explore New York City through non-fiction books.

Eyewitness Kids' Travel Guides: New York by DK Publishing
Let's Explore Central Park by Zachary Malott

Awards/Reviews

2010 Newbery Award

From Publishers Weekly:

Twelve-year-old Miranda, a latchkey kid whose single mother is a law school dropout, narrates this complex novel, a work of science fiction grounded in the nitty-gritty of Manhattan life in the late 1970s. . . Eventually and improbably, these strands converge to form a thought-provoking whole. Stead (First Light) accomplishes this by making every detail count, including Miranda's name, her hobby of knot tying and her favorite book, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. It's easy to imagine readers studying Miranda's story as many times as she's read L'Engle's, and spending hours pondering the provocative questions it raises.

From School Library Journal:

Rebecca Stead's novel (Wendy Lamb Books, 2009) pivots around the day Sal gets punched by an unknown classmate and shifts the order of the universe. She skillfully weaves written notes into each scene and repeats clues when necessary. The climax is full of drama and suspense. This story about the intricacies of friendship will be a hit with students.-Ann Crewdson, Issaquah Library-KCLS, WA

From Booklist:

If this book makes your head hurt, you're not alone. Sixth-grader Miranda admits that the events she relates make her head hurt, too. Time travel will do that to you. . . Miranda's first-person narrative is the letter she is sending to the future. Or is it the past? It's hard to know if the key events ultimately make sense (head hurting!), and it seems the whys, if not the hows, of a pivotal character's actions are not truly explained. Yet everything else is quite wonderful. The '70s New York setting is an honest reverberation of the era; the mental gymnastics required of readers are invigorating; and the characters, children and adults, are honest bits of humanity no matter in what place or time their souls rest. Just as Miranda rereads L'Engle, children will return to this.--Cooper, Ilene

Bibliography

Stead, Rebecca. When you reach me. New York: Wendy Lamb Books, 2009. ISBN 9780385737425.

5603 - Children's Book Reviews

Tuesday, November 30, 2010