When You Reach Me- 2010 Newbery Medal Winner- Novel #2

The Book
Stead, R. (2009). When You Reach Me. New York: Wendy Lamb Books a division of Random House, Inc.

Summary
When You Reach Me is about a 12 year old girl name Miranda. Miranda lives in New York and the book is set in the years of 1978-1979. Throughout the book Miranda receives mysterious notes, these notes hint at knowledge of the future and demand that Miranda not speak of them to anyone and keep them secret. Of all the notes Miranda receives the first one is the one that impacts her the most. In this note the mysterious person who left it stated they were coming to save her friend's life as well as their own and that they will not be themselves when they reach her. This novel contains four story lines- the apprearance of Miranda's mom on the $20,000 Pyramid show, the crazy laughing man that lives on the corner, Miranda's best friend Sal suddenly not talking to her and the new friendships that she develops during this time. Near the end of this novel these story lines start to forge together and through tragedy the message the notes were trying to send becomes clear.

Response
I really enjoyed this book, so far it's one of my favourite's from this assignment. It was a bit confusing at first, especially when it referred to the notes before I even read about them.  At first I thought these notes may have been from Miranda's dad. However, after reading the first note that was left it became clear they were from someone that was unknown to Miranda at that time. This book always had me thinking ahead and guessing what was going to happen next. It contained many elements of mystery and suprise and I enjoyed the foreshadowing  and elements of time travel throughout the book.  After reading this book it became clear that the novel Miranda took with her everywhere was much like the story being told in this novel. There were definate similarities between the book she was always reading and this book, such as the main character in her book going back in time to rescue her brother. This was quite similar to how the laughing man travelled back in time to save Sal's life in this book. I enjoyed  the different friendships created in this book and in the end I really began to understand  Sal's reasoning behind his decison to stop talking to Miranda.Through this decision both Miranda and Sal were able to become more independent and create new friendships. The ending was both enlightening, unexpected and tragic. I found myself shedding a few tears after the laughing man saved Sal's life but this incident also had a positive effect. It is through this incident that everything started to make sense and fall into place for both the characters and myself as the reader.

Awards received/Reader's advisory information
When You Reach Me is the Newbery medal winner for 2010.  The central themes of this book are time travel, friendship and redemption. I think this book would be most appropriate for children 9 and up. It is quite complex and the content and reading level might be too difficult for younger children.