Book Review: When You Reach Me

When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead
(Gr 6-8)

12 year old Miranda has always been best friends with Sal. They've grown up together in the same apartment building in New York City. She knows how to stay safe in the city and has a comfortable life. Until the day Sal is punched walking home from school, for no reason. Then Miranda starts receiving strange notes telling her that someone is coming to save her friend's life - and their own.

This is a book that I hadn't heard much about beforehand, I picked it up at my local independent bookstore and thought it sounded interesting. I added it to my pile and figured I'd get to it eventually. After reading a little more about it, I moved it to the top of my list and started it AND finished it last night.

I haven't read a book for awhile that pulled me in to the point that I knew I would just keep reading until I was finished. When You Reach Me sort of defies genre-fication...that's not a word, but you probably know what I mean. It's like a realistic fiction/mystery/science fiction/teen book and completely fantastic!

Miranda has many familiar junior high experiences. After she and Sal have a falling out, she makes new friends, gets a part time job, works hard at school, and obsessively reads A Wrinkle in Time. She learns to be a good friend and discovers who she is, all the while wondering who is leaving her mysterious notes and what they could possibly mean. See? Realistic fiction/mystery/science fiction and actually I may as well throw in historical fiction since it's set in the late 1970's and for the teens of the 2000's that may as well be caveman days.

The book is full of interesting secondary characters. I loved Miranda's family and friends. They all felt so real. I love when even secondary characters become important to me as a reader. Miranda's world is so wonderfully accessible for readers, even when it becomes a little more fantastic.

I will be recommending this book to kids a lot and fully expect to hear it praised all over the place in the coming months. Definitely check out your library or bookstore and pick up a copy of When You Reach Me. You won't be disappointed.