Stead, R. (2010). When you reach me. New York: Wendy Lamb Books.
Summary
When You Reach Me is set in New York in 1979. It tells the story of Miranda, a very independent sixth-grader who begins to receive strange notes that predict things in the future. Miranda's favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time, a book which deals with time travel, and Miranda finds herself dealing with time travel in her own life. In addition to the strange notes, Miranda must also deal with the challenges of friendships. Her friend Sal is punched by a boy named Marcus, whom she discovers is actually quite nice. A girl Miranda despises, Julia, turns out to be not so bad. In addition to strange notes suggesting time travel and friendship challenges, Miranda is also helping her mother to prepare for an appearance on the game show $20,000 Pyramid. It is while her mom is on the show that Miranda realizes that a strange man in the neigborhood is actually Marcus. Marcus time traveled in order to save Sal from an oncoming truck. The notes were information that Miranda needed to deliver tro the young Marcus from the older Marcus.
My Impression
Even though this book is set in the 1979, it deals with themes that are timeless. Recommended for children 12 and over, this book deals with friendship issues, racism, and, of course, time travel. I enjoyed the book, even though at times it was confusing. It is the type of book that would be understood more the second time it is read. I think Miranda is a character that many readers will identify with, and Stead helps that along by showing Miranda's good traits as well as her bad. The ending is wonderful, and will definitely stay with me. This book has been a New York Times bestseller and won the Newbery Medal in 2010.
Library Usage
Miranda's favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time, and the book is often referred to in this story. Have students read A Wrinkle in Time after reading When You Reach Me. Discuss the events in each book that reminds them of the other book. Compare and contrast the two books, and the two main characters.
Review
Miranda, a sixth grader, knows her neighborhood in New York like the back of her hand. She and her best friend Sal routinely pass by Belle's Market, Jimmy's bakery, and the homeless guy called the Laughing Man who sits on the street corner staring at a mailbox. Miranda begins to receive cryptic notes, each one like a premonition of the next event. At first Miranda is scared, believing someone is stalking her.
But slowly she realizes something supernatural is occuring in her seemingly normal surroundings. 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.
Crewdson, A. (2009). When You Reach Me. School Library Journal, 55(12), 69
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. Miranda's story is set in motion by the appearance of cryptic notes that suggest that someone is watching her and that they know things about her life that have not yet happened. She's especially freaked out by one that reads: "I'm coming
to save your friend's life, and my own." Over the course of her sixth-gradeyear, Miranda details three distinct plot threads: her mother's upcoming appearance on The $20,000 Pyramid; the sudden rupture of Miranda's lifelong friendship with neighbor Sal; and the unsettling appearance
of a deranged homeless person dubbed "the laughing man." Eventually and improbably, these strands converge toform 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 itraises. Ages 9-14.
When You Reach Me. (2009). Publishers Weekly, 256(25), 45.
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