When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

I saw this book on my cousin Betsy's blog, then a few places after that, but I was way down the list on the library hold request.  Luckily, on Saturday I saw a copy in the teen section of the library!  Yay!  It is a Newberry winner, and the back says it is for 8-12 year old readers.  Because of that, you can read it quick.  Probably one sitting.  I liked it very much. 

I was a little put off in the beginning with all the references to the past, or future, or whatever.  But after getting over that, there wasn't anything else I didn't like in the book. 

Miranda is the main character.  She is 12, and lives with her mom in an apartment in New York.  She learns a lot about friendship and being nice through the course of the book.  She is smart, relatable and likable.  I liked Rebecca Stead's easy writing style.

Miranda's favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time, and hopefully you've read it because she does reference it a lot.  If you love A Wrinkle in Time, there's even more of a chance that you will really like this book. She has a bit of an mystery to solve herself after notes that seem to predict the future start appearing.  She feels nervous about them.  In fact, she is scared about a few things, and I like that.  I feel like she seems very normal, and even though she has a good life, nothing is too perfect.  She starts the story talking about how her best (only) friend had decided to take a break from her.  Because of that, she starts making new friends.  I thought that those relationships were portrayed really well.  I also liked the clever backdrop of helping her mom prepare to go on The $20,000 pyramid.

Here are a few quotes I really liked.

"It's all still there, like a movie I can watch when I want to.  Which is never."

"Sometimes you never feel meaner than the moment you stop being mean. It's like how turning on a light makes you realize how dark the room had gotten.  And the way you usually act, the things you would have normally done, are like these ghosts that everyone can see but pretends not to."

"They were circling each other and laughing and racing around and I wanted to be part of it so much that my heart almost broke watching."