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When You Reach Me: (Newbery Medal Winner) (Yearling Newbery) Paperback – December 28, 2010
| Rebecca Stead (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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"Like A Wrinkle in Time (Miranda's favorite book), When You Reach Me far surpasses the usual whodunit or sci-fi adventure to become an incandescent exploration of 'life, death, and the beauty of it all.'" —The Washington Post
This Newbery Medal winner that has been called "smart and mesmerizing," (The New York Times) and "superb" (The Wall Street Journal) will appeal to readers of all types, especially those who are looking for a thought-provoking mystery with a mind-blowing twist.
Shortly after a fall-out with her best friend, sixth grader Miranda starts receiving mysterious notes, and she doesn’t know what to do. The notes tell her that she must write a letter—a true story, and that she can’t share her mission with anyone.
It would be easy to ignore the strange messages, except that whoever is leaving them has an uncanny ability to predict the future. If that is the case, then Miranda has a big problem—because the notes tell her that someone is going to die, and she might be too late to stop it.
Winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Fiction
A New York Times Bestseller and Notable Book
Five Starred Reviews
A Junior Library Guild Selection
"Absorbing." —People
"Readers ... are likely to find themselves chewing over the details of this superb and intricate tale long afterward." —The Wall Street Journal
"Lovely and almost impossibly clever." —The Philadelphia Inquirer
"It's easy to imagine readers studying Miranda's story as many times as she's read L'Engle's, and spending hours pondering the provocative questions it raises." —Publishers Weekly, Starred review
- Print length240 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Grade level3 - 7
- Lexile measure750L
- Dimensions5.25 x 0.65 x 7.69 inches
- PublisherYearling
- Publication dateDecember 28, 2010
- ISBN-101921656069
- ISBN-13978-0375850868
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From the Publisher
Praise for the writing of Rebecca Stead:
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| The List of Things That Will Not Change | Goodbye Stranger | Liar & Spy | First Light | |
| Read all the bestselling books from Newbery Award-winning author Rebecca Stead! | EIGHT STARRED REVIEWS! The reassuring book kids and families need right now. | This brilliant, New York Times bestselling novel explores multiple perspectives on the bonds and limits of friendship. | The instant New York Times bestselling novel about spies, games, and friendship. | This remarkable and acclaimed debut novel introduces readers to a captivating, hidden world below the ice. |
Editorial Reviews
Review
A Junior Library Guild Selection
An ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book
An ALA-YALSA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults
A best book of the year:
Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Booklist, Indies Choice
Named to Multiple State Award Lists
Five starred reviews
"[W]hen all the sidewalk characters from Miranda's Manhattan world converge amid mind-blowing revelations and cunning details, teen readers will circle back to the beginning and say,'Wow ... cool.'" —Kirkus Reviews, Starred review
"[T]he mental gymnastics required of readers are invigorating; and the characters, children, and adults are honest bits of humanity no matter in what place or time their souls rest." —Booklist, Starred review
"Closing revelations are startling and satisfying but quietly made, their reverberations giving plenty of impetus for the reader to go back to the beginning and catch what was missed." —The Horn Book Magazine, Starred review
"This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will appeal to several types of readers." —School Library Journal, Starred review
"It's easy to imagine readers studying Miranda's story as many times as she's read L'Engle's, and spending hours pondering the provocative questions it raises." —Publishers Weekly, Starred review
[T]he believable characters and unexpected ending invite readers to ponder the extraordinary that underlies the ordinary in this fictional world and in their own.” —The Washington Post
"Absorbing." —People
"Readers ... are likely to find themselves chewing over the details of this superb and intricate tale long afterward." —The Wall Street Journal
“Incandescent.” —The Washington Post
"Smart and mesmerizing." —The New York Times
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
So Mom got the postcard today. It says Congratulations in big curly letters, and at the very top is the address of Studio TV-15 on West 58th Street. After three years of trying, she has actually made it. She's going to be a contestant on The $20,000 Pyramid, which is hosted by Dick Clark.
On the postcard there's a list of things to bring. She needs some extra clothes in case she wins and makes it to another show, where they pretend it's the next day even though they really tape five in one afternoon. Barrettes are optional, but she should definitely bring some with her. Unlike me, Mom has glossy red hair that bounces around and might obstruct America's view of her small freckled face.
And then there's the date she's supposed to show up, scrawled in blue pen on a line at the bottom of the card: April 27, 1979. Just like you said.
I check the box under my bed, which is where I've kept your notes these past few months. There it is, in your tiny handwriting: April 27th: Studio TV-15, the words all jerky-looking, like you wrote them on the subway. Your last "proof."
I still think about the letter you asked me to write. It nags at me, even though you're gone and there's no one to give it to anymore. Sometimes I work on it in my head, trying to map out the story you asked me to tell, about everything that happened this past fall and winter. It's all still there, like a movie I can watch when I want to. Which is never.
Things That Go Missing
Mom has swiped a big paper calendar from work and Scotch-taped the month of April to the kitchen wall. She used a fat green marker, also swiped from work, to draw a pyramid on April 27, with dollar signs and exclamation points all around it.
She went out and bought a fancy egg timer that can accurately measure a half minute. They don't have fancy egg timers in the supply closet at her office.
April twenty-seventh is also Richard's birthday. Mom wonders if that's a good omen. Richard is Mom's boyfriend. He and I are going to help Mom practice every single night, which is why I'm sitting at my desk instead of watching after-school TV, which is a birthright of every latchkey child. "Latchkey child" is a name for a kid with keys who hangs out alone after school until a grown-up gets home to make dinner. Mom hates that expression. She says it reminds her of dungeons, and must have been invented by someone strict and awful with an unlimited child-care budget. "Probably someone German," she says, glaring at Richard, who is German but not strict or awful.
It's possible. In Germany, Richard says, I would be one of the Schlusselkinder, which means "key children."
"You're lucky," he tells me. "Keys are power. Some of us have to come knocking." It's true that he doesn't have a key. Well, he has a key to his apartment, but not to ours.
Richard looks the way I picture guys on sailboats--tall, blond, and very tucked-in, even on weekends. Or maybe I picture guys on sailboats that way because Richard loves to sail. His legs are very long, and they don't really fit under our kitchen table, so he has to sit kind of sideways, with his knees pointing out toward the hall. He looks especially big next to Mom, who's short and so tiny she has to buy her belts in the kids' department and make an extra hole in her watchband so it won't fall off her arm.
Mom calls Richard Mr. Perfect because of how he looks and how he knows everything. And every time she calls him Mr. Perfect, Richard taps his right knee. He does that because his right leg is shorter than his left one. All his right-foot shoes have little platforms nailed to the bottom so that his legs match. In bare feet, he limps a little.
"You should be grateful for that leg," Mom tells him. "It's the only reason we let you come around." Richard has been "coming around" for almost two years now.
We have exactly twenty-one days to get Mom ready for the game show. So instead of watching television, I'm copying words for her practice session tonight. I write each word on one of the white index cards Mom swiped from work. When I have seven words, I bind the cards together with a rubber band she also swiped from work.
I hear Mom's key in the door and flip over my word piles so she can't peek.
"Miranda?" She clomps down the hall--she's on a clog kick lately--and sticks her head in my room. "Are you starving? I thought we'd hold dinner for Richard."
"I can wait." The truth is I've just eaten an entire bag of Cheez Doodles. After-school junk food is another fundamental right of the latchkey child. I'm sure this is true in Germany, too.
"You're sure you're not hungry? Want me to cut up an apple for you?"
"What's a kind of German junk food?" I ask her. "Wiener crispies?"
She stares at me. "I have no idea. Why do you ask?"
"No reason."
"Do you want the apple or not?"
"No, and get out of here--I'm doing the words for later."
"Great." She smiles and reaches into her coat pocket. "Catch." She lobs something toward me, and I grab what turns out to be a bundle of brand-new markers in rainbow colors, held together with a fat rubber band. She clomps back toward the kitchen.
Richard and I figured out a while ago that the more stuff Mom swipes from the office supply closet, the more she's hating work. I look at the markers for a second and then get back to my word piles.
Mom has to win this money.
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Product details
- ASIN : 0375850864
- Publisher : Yearling; Reprint edition (December 28, 2010)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 240 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1921656069
- ISBN-13 : 978-0375850868
- Reading age : 8 - 12 years
- Lexile measure : 750L
- Grade level : 3 - 7
- Item Weight : 5.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.25 x 0.65 x 7.69 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Children's City Life Books
- #36 in Children's Mystery, Detective, & Spy
- #205 in Children's Friendship Books
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Rebecca Stead has written six novels for young people: WHEN YOU REACH ME (A bestseller and winner of the Newbery Medal and the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for Fiction); THE LIST OF THINGS THAT WILL NOT CHANGE (A Time Magazine Top Ten Children's Book of the Year), LIAR & SPY (Winner of the Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction and a New York Times Book Review Notable Book for Children); FIRST LIGHT (a Junior Library Guild Selection and a New York Public Library Best Book for Teens); GOODBYE STRANGER (A New York Times Bestseller and New York Times Book Review Notable Book for Children); and BOB (co-written with Wendy Mass). Rebecca lives in New York City with her family.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviewed in the United States on July 17, 2018
Top reviews from the United States
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Heartfelt, complex, smart and fantastical- it's a mystery in many parts, including the bizarre language of middle-school age friendship and time travel. Highly recommended (for adults, not just kids).
This book left me underwhelmed. The explanations of the time travel were gibberish, honestly. It's like they said, "This happens... then this happens!" No, that doesn't explain anything. You need to explain HOW it happens, not what happens.
And why did Marcus hit Sal? This is held up as a key moment in the book, yet even by the end, it's never explained.
Yes, the middle-grade heroine is quite likeable, but a lot of the book delves into the boring survey of "oh this is a cute trait of this character, so unlike others" and "oh this is a cute occurrence that happens on this street, observe it carefully!". It's like a sketch of what one can "see" and note in others. But it doesn't make a story. I've noticed a lot of those books lately. They try to outbid each other as who can come up with the most remarkable traits in people, society, and environment and everyday life. But there's little story or conflict.
Revolving around an old Dick Clark hosted game show seems a little gimmicky on the surface, but Stead manages it deftly by setting it as a soft backdrop and a framing device. With Pyramid chapter titles, i.e., Things You Count, Things You Push Away, Salty Things, etc, you have a clever and grounding way to deliver these episodic moments from Miranda's life and hold onto that tie to the game show and her mother's appearance on it, coming up that spring.
The notes, and the missing items, provide a fantastic puzzle for the reader to unravel. The personal problems Miranda has to deal with are simple by definition but complex and tricky in life. Figuring out who you are and trying to understand the people around you is something at which everyone, at every age, struggles. Miranda is on the cusp of something extraordinary with the notes and the eventual discovery, but she's also on that cusp of heading into her teenage years, that apex which everyone must traverse as you leave childhood.
Not only do I adore this book, I would’ve absolutely loved it when I was in the target age range. I loved it so much, just because it's an entertaining book to read, that, after returning my borrowed copy to the library, I immediately ordered the hardcover for my sons to read.
The tie in with A Wrinkle In Time, scientific theories and the huge mystery that keeps you hanging until the end makes this one novel that I tell my classes that I would want with me on a desert island, no joke. It is that great and I highly recommend that ANY person read this very beautiful and amazing piece of work. I love this book!
My almost 12yr old daughter asked me to buy this for her. She has not finished, but says she's enjoying it. She can be picky, too. I will have her review the story itself, or if I decide to read it, which I just might after all of these great reviews.
Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2018
My almost 12yr old daughter asked me to buy this for her. She has not finished, but says she's enjoying it. She can be picky, too. I will have her review the story itself, or if I decide to read it, which I just might after all of these great reviews.
This book, although written for middle schoolers is completely engaging - I couldn't put our down! Well deserving of the Newberry that it received. I'd definitely recommend it!
Top reviews from other countries
At any rate, I'd read it in under three hours, and enjoyed it very much. From an adult perspective, it's more of a novella, which is fine, but, to my mind, the length was just right. I quite like reading (nearly) YA books from time to time. The audience forces authors to stick fairly closely to the point, avoiding too many digressions.
The story takes place in 1979 (or does it? hehe). Miranda (12) lives in New York City with her mother in an apartment. The story begins as, for reasons she knows not, her male friend (Sal) who she's known all her life no longer wants to talk to her. She makes some new friends and starts to receive bizarre notes on small scraps of paper.
The story develops quickly and, bizarrely, for me, having just finished, as noted, a mammoth science fiction trilogy, morphs into neat little SciFi tale. I'm not quite sure why the author set the book in 1979 - perhaps to avoid the characters having mobile phones (which they would do these days) and to avoid having to put too much in the book about `stranger danger' and the (what would now be seen as) malevolent overtones to someone sending messages to a 12-year-old girl.
At any rate, this is a delightful, insightful, clever, well-written, poignant book. Highly recommended to all readers from 10 to 100!
9/10
This is a short, easy to read piece of fiction, that is funny, moving and sad with some very profound things to say about the nature of friendship, and utterly, utterly brilliant to boot!













