"When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead

Citation:
Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me. New York: Random House, 2009.
ISBN: 9780385737425

Plot Summary:
Miranda, named after a criminal, lives in an apartment with her mother.  She spends most of her evenings with her mother and her mother's boyfriend, Richard, practicing for the $20,000 Pyramid.  Miranda has been getting mysterious notes that seem impossible and tell the future.  She tries to make sense of their meaning and who has sent them.

Critical Analysis:
Stead has created wonderfully mixed world of reality and fantasy.  Miranda's day to day activities are average and realistic.  Stead employs low fantasy by bending time and space and predicting the future.  The mystery of who is contacting Miranda through the notes is ongoing and keeps the reader's interest throughout the book.  Miranda is a leveled character who balances her eccentric mother.  The mother daughter relationship created by Stead has a "Freaky Friday" feel at times, as if there is a sort of role reversal between parent and child. The setting is an exceptionally important part of the story which is most greatly comprised by the people in Miranda's life: her family, neighbors, friends, and the "laughing man".

Review Excerpts:
School Library Journal: "This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will appeal to several types of readers."
Publishers Weekly: "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."

Connections:
*Texas Lonestar Young Adult Reading List Nominees 2004-05
*Newbery Medal/Honor Books
*Check out Miranda's favorite book and draw connections:
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
ISBN: 9780312367541