One of the most impressive things to me about middle grade literature is how much power their books can punch with so little pages. It still astounds me. As older people I guess we tend to over explain and overanalyze. Thank goodness there are authors that can still capture the feel of being a kid growing up and how simultaneously painful and wonderful it can be.

Miranda is a sixth grader who lives in New York City. Her life seems pretty normal. She has a best friend named Sal but that all change More...

First I have to say that A Wrinkle in Time has been my favorite or among my very favorite books since I was nine years old, and I’ve never been able to write a true or worthy review for it; I can’t even try.

There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of books I wish I’d written. Occasionally, I come across a book I should have written. This is a book I definitely should have written. It touched me to the core in that incredibly familiar way that seems to come from within, not the outside. Some details are More...

My New York Times review.

A blog post about reading it aloud to my fourth graders with links to their own blog posts.

I almost did not read this book. I knew it was targeted for a younger audience, but I didn’t realize just how young. I kept vainly searching for it in the teenagers’ section (where I was already a bit embarrassed to be spotted). When I realized I would have to go inside the children’s section at B&N, I wavered. The little chairs. The colored foam titles on the floor. The stuffed animals. It’s all cute, but could one of those books satisfy me?

It probably deserves more than three stars. But it More...

This intriguing modern day story draws inspiration from Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time.

When Miranda's mother unexpectedly fell pregnant during college, she put her studies on hold and took time out to care for her baby. Twelve years later mother and daughter are poor but happy together.

Miranda is a good girl, but like many her age her world is small and revolves mainly around herself. When strange notes appear which tell her about things that will happen in the future, she is intrigued. More...

Newbery Winner 2010
#2 on Barnes & Noble's Top Ten Children's Books of 2009
Maine Student Book Award Nominee 2010-2011

I feel like I'm missing something because every other review seems to be five stars. I liked the book. How could I not, when it references A Wrinkle in Time so often. I personally found the mystery to be easily solved. I like how the author weaved the clues in, but I found it to be very obvious and knew from the beginning from the book who it was and how it would work. I'm not More...

Is it wrong to love a book so much to bits?

That’s the first question I was asking myself when I finished reading this book. It has the most unique plotline in the whole entire world, but that’s the thing –I won’t tell you. It’s not until the end of the book do you realise what the whole plotline is. Which is why I truly love, love, love this book to pieces.
It has the most original plot I’ve ever read. No questions asked. Everything that the author puts in the story counts. Literally.

“Such a clev More...

Wow. Easily five stars. This is a MUST for all Madeleine L'Engle fans - and anyone who enjoyed watching The $20,000 Pyramid game show! Once I really got started, I didn't want to stop until I had finished. And even once I reached the end, I went back and reread some parts again.

I loved the writing style with short chapters, most with titles that could be categories on The $20,000 Pyramid game show and applied in some way to the events in the chapter. The short chapters also moved the story alon More...

4.5 stars!

This is the newest Newbery Medal Award Winner and I had actually wanted to read it before it had been nominated. This is a cleverly written "slice of life" tale that transcends age, gender, and race and is a great story that anyone and everyone can enjoy.

This book twists and turns and meanders about in such a fascinating way that you're quickly pulled into Miranda's and her friends' lives and what it's like to grow up in New York in the late '70s. Some of the observations that the auth More...

4.5 stars for this very sweet and earnest middle reader. Though the plot is soft science fiction-ish (there are reasons that A Wrinkle in Time is invoked), this is a foil for the story of transitioning to adolescence. You might kiss someone, or have an insight about a friend, or experience a flash of satori when your brain becomes abstract enough to grasp the paradoxes inherent in time travel.

I enjoyed the chapter headings that alluded to The $20000 Pyramid, which suggested that Miranda is now More...

So much in such a little book and not what I expected at all. Miranda's (the main character's) favourite book is A Wrinkle in Time, which pretty much tells you everything you need to know about this novel if you really think about it. There are kind of two intertwined stories that are really one story. The first is the story of a preteen girl going through the pangs of growing up, losing her best friend and finding new ones, overcoming preconceived notions of others, coming to terms with racism, More...

This is a book that will intrigue people of all ages. It boggles your mind at times, makes you laugh at others, and turns the corners of your mouth down at others still! I enjoyed reading this, trying to figure out how the complex plot would unravel.
Miranda, the main charater in this story, lives with her mother in a shabby apartment. Her mother has just been selected to be in a game show involving money, and while they get ready for that, things tsart happening.
Sal, Miranda's best friend, gets More...

Mystery, fantasy, science fiction? Who has been dropping little notes for Miranda, and how does he or she know what is going to happen? Whose life is in danger? *When You Reach Me* weaves the mystery among the threads of Miranda's daily life, dealing with friendships, school, her mother's boyfriend, and her own first kiss; L'Engle's *A Wrinkle in Time* provides a leitmotif throughout that is connected to the mysterious new boy, Marcus, and his peculiar theories about time travel.

Set on the upper West side of Manhattan in the 80s, this realistic novel about a girl and boy who are best friends until they become self conscious is a winner. The plot takes a turn into fantasy and science fiction in a moving and believable way to make this an unusual novel. The fantasy is very cleverly slipped into the story.

Full review at the Intergalactic Academy.

I’m late to the party with Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me, winner of a Newbery in 2010 and recipient of widespread acclaim. It certainly deserves its praise; this is an engaging, fascinating middle grade novel, which takes stylistic risks all while celebrating a work of classic children’s science fiction, namely Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.

A Wrinkle in Time is twelve-year-old Miranda’s favorite book. She retreats into its pages when her best More...

1/15/13

I am currently reading When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. This book is a Newbery award winning book and it definitely should be one! It's about a girl named Miranda who lives in New York city with her single mom. Her mom has been trying to get on a game show for years and finally she does. Guess what the prize is? $20,000! But Miranda has bigger problems to take care of. Her apartment was broken into! It started when her mom and her hid a key in the dirty fire hose outside their apartmen More...

Good YA science fiction is hard to find. Thanks to a Goodreads friend I found this little book, devoured it in a day, and felt satisfied all over. What an absolutely great story! Minus the science fiction element, When You Reach Me could probably stand on its own as a YA novel about turning 12 and starting to grow up in a big city in the 1970s. With the science fiction element, it is also a charming and thoughtful tribute to Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, a great favorite of young reader More...

Finished the Awesome and interesting book

I liked this book. Recommended to me by the forever wonderful Silver Prion Chemistry (as usual!).

THE PLOT
I honestly had no idea where the plot was going for the first several chapters of the book. It was a little bit confusing at times, but I did like it. I LOVED how everything fell into place at the end. I didn't realize (view spoiler)[how important all the time travel stuff was until the end, too. (hide spoiler)]

MIRANDA
Miranda was extremely relateable, although she acted a little bit younger than her 12 years, if I do say s More...

I am currently reading When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. This book is about a girl named Miranda who keeps finding mysterious notes in random places that are written specifically to her. I think this book's theme so far is to look at your surroundings and know what surrounds you. I think this because Miranda's life is just totally normal and one day her friend just gets hurt and then stops talking to her and she starts getting these mysterious notes that because of what they say you can tell t More...

At first, I really didn't think I was going to like the book as much as I enjoyed the others. After the first note was recieved, things started to turn around. I wanted to know who the author was, I needed to know. While I knew the man on the corner was going to be an important part of the story, I was absolutely dumbfounded when I found out exactly how significant he was. This book was a welcomed change. Completely unlike the recent books I have been reading. While there were strong themes pres More...

On the surface, When You Reach Me appears to be a throwback to the children's literature of yore. It's set in late-seventies NYC and features a young girl who learns about friendship and stuff. And as an added bit of quirk, her mother is going to appear on The $20,000 Pyramid, which provides the chapter titles with a cute theme. The book even wears this sense of nostalgia on its sleeve by heavily referencing A Wrinkle in Time, the main character's favorite book.

But there's something else going o More...

It’s 11:00 in the morning and I want to strangle whoever is on the other end of the phone. Who the hell calls a body at eleven in the morning not knowing if the one answering is a morning person? Though, 11 isn’t exactly the crack of dawn. Though how could they have known that I was just about to get some shut eye? But then, bits of the story trickle back and though I’m still grumpy (read raging mad pissed) at having been roused, I’m not as grumpy… because I’m grinning and grinning and maybe loo More...

I liked this book, though I'm not sure I can jump on the bandwagon of rave reviews. The writing is well-done, and I love the language - it's quite poetic in places. The main character is an observant, thoughtful, intelligent young woman who is very likeable. The subject of the story - centered on the idea of time-travel - is pleasantly different from the popular YA literature that currently crowds bookstore and library shelves (zombies, vampires, etc). What I did not like about the novel is that More...

A slim, perfect book about love, death, friendship, being 12, and time travel - and a love letter to Madeleine L'Engle's 'A Wrinkle in Time' to boot.

I ordered Stead's book through the public library after finding out it was the winner of last year's Newbery Medal. When I picked it up and saw the big print, I felt disappointed; I'd been excited, but thought that even with my growing passion for children's and YA novels, this was going to be too simple.

I took it home anyway, figuring I'd give it More...

Actually, I surprised myself by thoroughly enjoying this book. This is why: 1) I rarely like any books whose target audience is middle-schoolers; 2) "When You Reach Me" is a sort of homage to Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle In Time," a novel which I couldn't get myself to finish.

It's a little hard to give a synopsis of the story. 12-year old Miranda's best friend Sal suddenly stops talking to her. The apartment key that Miranda’s mom keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen. And then Miranda start More...

The year is 1979 and Miranda is a sixth grader living in New York City. She absolutely loves the book A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Her mother is going to be a contestant on the game show The $20,000 Pyramid and they practice together every night. Miranda's best friend Sal stopped speaking to her the day he got jumped on their walk home from school, and since then she's made a few new friends.

But when Miranda receives four mysterious notes, each showing up in a random place, the str More...

I re-read this book for a mother daughter book club and enjoyed it more the second time around. Sure, there's still a bit of a depth issue for me, but I think my expectations were high on the first reading. I would encourage you to give this book a try (especially alongside your own younger reader).

Original review:

"What's not to like about a book whose main character carries around a tattered, well-worn, much read copy of A Wrinkle in Time?" That was my thought mere pages into When You Reach Me More...

I have to admit, this is a pretty awesome book. I was hesitant to read this at first because I heard that it was sci-fi and I am just starting to slllloooowwwwly get into that genre so I wasn't sure I'd like it. But it's really not very sci-fi at all, except for the concept of time travel, which really isn't driving the plot, at least directly. I really loved the writing, though. The story unfolds beautifully and the author pretty much sucks you in right away. The storytelling is so engaging and More...

If I had any power in the book-world at all, this book would be reprinted next year with a shiny sticker on the cover proclaiming it to be a Newberry Award Winner. Since I really have no power at all, I will satisfy myself by suggesting to all those that still happen to read my little reviews that you go out and find this book and read it. Immediately. Or at least, really soon. It really is that good.

Rebecca Stead's novel is set in the late 70's in New York City--a time when sixth-graders had th More...