When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead

Penguin / Random House / 
Wendy Lamb Books, 2009
Kindle Edition, 210 pages

Description (from GoodReads):

Four mysterious letters change Miranda’s world. 

Miranda and Sal are best friends, but when Sal gets punched by a new kid for no apparent reason, he shuts Miranda out of his life. Then she finds a mysterious note scrawled on a tiny slip of paper: 

"I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.
I ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter."

Miranda finds other notes left for her in strange places and she realizes that whoever is leaving them knows all about her, including things that haven’t even happened yet... 

When You Reach Me is a story about friendship and time. It’s an intriguing puzzle with pieces that fit together in the most intricate and unexpected ways.

My Thoughts:

I've had this Newbery Medal winner on my TBR list for almost a decade now. I should thank Bev and the Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge for giving me just the nudge I needed — I was looking for a book for June and this one jumped out at me (Key Word: WHEN). And now I'm sorry I put it off for so long, because this is a wonderful book!

From the descriptions I'd read, I was expecting it to be much gloomier than it turned out to be. Although it does deal with some very serious issues, that's balanced with quite a bit of humor (especially around the subplot of Miranda's mother and her preparations to appear on a TV quiz show) and the characters are all wonderfully human and multifaceted. And then there are all those mysterious sci-fi aspects that I really wasn't expecting — kept me saying "Wow, what next?" right up to the end. I know it's aimed at middle graders, but this is one "kiddie lit" book that can be enjoyed by adults as well.


Rating: ★★★★

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