Revisiting: Rebecca Stead’s First Light

I read Stead’s debut novel First Light when it came out in 2007 and remember quite enjoying it. Having recently enthusiastically reviewed her latestLiar & Spy which was recognizable as being by the same person who wrote When You Reach Me (which I also reviewed), I became curious about this first book. If I read it now, familiar with those other two books, would it also feel like a “Rebecca Stead” work?

I remembered aspects quite well — the dual narratives, one of a boy going with his mother an...