BOOK REVIEW: When You Reach Me

NOTE:  This book is sort-of an homage to A Wrinkle In Time, which was reviewed in January.  

Time travel books can be tricky. Since, obviously, the rules for traveling through time are rather vague, an author is more or less free to invent his or her own rules. The only restriction may be to stay consistent within the story.This brings me to Rebecca Stead’s WHEN YOU REACH ME. Although advertised as a time travel story, it is much more.

Miranda is a twelve year old “latch key kid” with a single mom who works as a para-legal. Her lifelong best friend has stopped walking home from school with her, and even talking to her, after he is punched by one of the boys hanging out on the street. Mira now has to walk home, past that gang of boys as well as the weird homeless man who sleeps with his head under the mailbox.

Around this time she starts to find notes from an unidentified person. A person who knows that her mom will win a chance to be on The $20,000  Pyramid and other things that have not happened. Among the warnings is that this person will save one of Mira’s friends as well as himself.

The author says that she wrote this book for her young sons, to show them what it was like to grow up in New York City when she was young. This was a time when children had more freedom to roam and play on the streets. Rebecca Stead has done an excellent job of portraying the life of twelve year olds. The loss of the dependency of her friendship with Sal forces Mira to make other friends and new worlds open to her.

For me the book was rich in relationships and characters...two important elements of a book. The interplay among the students, as told through Mira’s words rang true. She had to deal with getting beneath the surface of her fellow classmates. This was an important part of her growth. Mira’s solution for the girl who was too shy to ask to go to the bathroom showed her maturing and starting to think outside of herself.

The best part for me was the fact that we saw little revealing pieces of what should have been minor characters. The school secretary, the shop owner across the street, the dentist, the shop owner who “hired” the three friends to help at his store over their lunch break. these all became three dimensional.

It is a story involving time travel. The notes are from somebody from the future, but somebody that Mira knows as a young girl. Naturally to tell you more would be what my kids call “dudeing it”. In other words ruin the ending for you. I will say that the the revealing scene is very touching and adds another layer to the story.

 Oh, and pay attention to the chapter titles. Very clever.

WHEN YOU REACH ME is recipient of the Newbery Medal which tells us that this is one more great book that adults should not miss. Rebecca Stead will be re-visited.