When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead

So Mom got the postcard today. It says Congratulations in big curly letters, and at the very top is the address of Studio TV-15 on West 58th Street. After three years of trying, she has actually made it. She's going to be a contestant on The $20,000 Pyramid, which is hosted by Dick Clark.


This is another great book that I really should have read by now. It also won the Newbery Award. But I just never got around to it, until now. And I was not disappointed. In fact, I really liked this book. It's part realistic fiction, part science fiction. I know, right? They're not supposed to mix. Yet they do in this book. Sixth grader Miranda begins receiving strange notes about the future, as if someone has traveled to the future and seen what has happened to her later. Meanwhile, her friend Sal is growing ever more distant from her, shutting her out of his life. The first note says: I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own. I ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter. The notes keep coming, and Miranda begins to believe that only she can prevent a very tragic death.

The whole book was super suspenseful; I read it in basically one sitting (admittedly it was only 197 pages.) I really wanted to find out who the notes were from. With such a lofty mystery, one might think that the ending would fall short, but it didn't. I loved the ending just as much as the rest of the book. It felt so right. No spoilers, though, so you have to read the book if you haven't already read it.

Read When You Reach Me:

• if you like realistic fiction with a splash of science fiction (contradictory isn't it?)
• if you like mysteries
• if you are looking for a really great (but easy and quick) read that will leave you thinking

197 pages.

 

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf For Rereading (jf I own it)!