When You Reach Me by Rachel Stead

4/5

I usually don't like books aimed at the youngest of young adult readers. Not because they are bad but because they often just don't appeal to me. When I try to read these books, I often feel like I'm the big jerk in a relationship...you know the one who says, "It's not you, it's me!" There are exceptions of course (a certain boy wizard leaps to mind) but, generally, I am more entertained by plots aimed at older teens. For that reason, I am always excited to find books intended for my youngest patrons that I can say I truly enjoyed. When you Reach Me is one of those.

WYRM is set in late 1970s New York and follows 12 year old Miranda during a turbulent time in her life. Her best friend is ignoring her completely, she begins receiving strange notes that seem to predict the future, and she is developing her fisrt crush on a boy. Her activist mother is preparing to compete on the $20,000 Pyramid, the social pressures of school are building, and she has to contemplate complex issues of race and class that didn't seem to matter in elementary school. On top of all of this, she is trying to wrap her brain around the concept of time travel, a theory that plays a prominent role in her favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time, and keeps coming up in conversation with the strange boy who lives above a shop in her neighborhood.

This book captures both time and place magnificently. Stead’s descriptions of Miranda’s neighborhood and the people in her life are vivid. Readers can easily picture everyone from the crazy homeless person who lives on the corner to the friendly old grocer who feeds Miranda vitamin C to the thugs who hang out in front of a car shop cat-calling to all the girls who walk by. Despite its realistic vibe, the ending is truly a surprise that will please fans of the fantasy genre. To be quite honest, I always can guess the ending (I knew Bruce Willis was dead long before he figured it out in the Sixth Sense) but the ending of this one was not only a surprise but the perfect conclusion to a great story. I will for sure be recommending this for grades five and above.