When You Reach Me is a well written book with a mysteriously twisted plot that kept me guessing the whole time. Miranda, the protagonist who gives us her first-person account, is a 6th grade girl who lives in New York City, and she has a best friend, Sal. Overall her life seems fairly normal, but that all changes when Miranda begins to find ominous notes, and Sal abandons their friendship. Whoever is writing the notes, he seems to know what is going to happen before it actually happens, and Miranda just can't figure out how, why her, and what it all means. Suspense builds as Miranda begins to believe that only she can prevent a grave ending.
Speaking back to our recent textbook chapter, this certainly has an element of sci-fi as it is largely based on the idea of time travel. I think this is on the young side of YA novels, but I genuinely loved it, so to me it would certainly appeal to young teenagers. It's amazing to me how novels like this can really have so much impact even for a target age group of 11-13. What a talent it takes to pack a punch like that into 200 pages.
The strength of this book was just how heartwarming and heartbreaking it was at the same time. I loved how real life it was- the characters just seemed real and Miranda's point of view was expressed really well. It's just... loveable.
When You Reach Me was the 2010 Newbery Medal Winner and a great book to add to the list for your youngest YA/middle school readers.
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