"When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead

This year’s Newbery, like many of them, has a true sweetness to it. Easily a 6th grade book (the protagonists are sixth graders), it is a fast and fun read which I was able to get through in an afternoon. With similarities to Ellen Raskin’s “Westing Game”, it is, at its core, an homage to Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time”. If you were one of those people who read and adored the L’Engle book as a child, you will love Ms. Stead’s riff on the theme. If not, the book may come of as a “huh?”

Miranda is 12 year-old girl living in New York City in 1979. She goes to school near Times Square and has the typical ups and downs with friends, trying to navigate the changing landscape as boys discover that girls are actually a little different (!) I like the fact that unlike many of the books I have read recently, Miranda actually sounds like a 12 year-old. Her narrative voice speeds through thoughts and observes the world around her with a young girl’s confusion and sardonic humor (and much of my “laugh-out-loud” moments came from her takes on adult behavior). Miranda’s favorite book is “A Wrinkle in Time.” She reads it, and re-reads it, and re-re-reads it – carrying it around with her until the little paperback is near to shredded. While this book has a realistic premise, the denouement definitely harkens back to L’Engle and has a satisfying, if not surprising, twist. The writing is clean and straightforward and Miranda’s journey is engaging and delightfully “normal”. The home situation is not depressing (yay!) and much of it felt like the 70s I grew up in (unlike a previous Newbery winner, “Criss Cross”). Let’s hear it for a Newbery winner that should also have high appeal.