When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead’s, second book for young readers, is a charming, lovingly crafted story about friendship, hope, and growing up. I’ll even go so far as to say it will be a contender for the Newbery Medal.
Set in New York City in the Fall of 1979, 12-year old Mira’s life is getting complicated: her best friend Sal has suddenly decided he doesn’t want to be friends anymore, and after an encounter with the school bully, Sal avoids her and won’t say why; Mira makes some new friends at school and gets a lunchtime job in the local sandwich shop; a strange, sometimes frightening homeless man starts loitering around the corner from Mira’s house; and the emergency keys to her apartment have gone missing. Then the note arrives: “I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own. I ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter. Second, please remember to mention the location of your house key. The trip is a difficult one. I will not be myself when I reach you.” The notes keep coming, and Mira slowly realizes the person who is leaving them knows things no one should know.
Stead perfectly captures that point in life when her character is waking up to the complexities of life: the world around her is bigger than she thought; the people and relationships are becoming more complex; and she is beginning to glimpse beyond the veil of how she’s always seen things. Stead draws characters who are genuine and portrays them with care and compassion. Mira is smart and funny, but also awkward and sometimes mean; naive, confused and innocently forthright and sometimes wise – a perfect portrait of a 12-year old. The puzzle that forms the plot is suspenseful and paced perfectly and the clues that Stead leaves for the reader are tasty breadcrumbs revealed at just the right points in the story to keep you turning pages.
Stead’s message is a great one: one mistake shouldn’t damn a person forever and having the courage and compassion to see beyond the obvious is something we should always strive for. Life is, after all, a beautiful mystery; and in When You Reach Me, it’s not candy-coated or sappy; it’s genuine, heartwarming and empowering. The extraordinary underlies the ordinary in this book and all you have to do is take a real look.
- Posted by Cori
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