When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead
Recommended for Ages 9-12
Someone at my children’s elementary school suggested that before reading When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, I should go back and read Madeleine L’Engle’s sci fi classic A Wrinkle in Time.
So, of course, I didn’t. I read When You Reach Me first. Then, I went back and read A Wrinkle in Time. Then, I decided I really didn’t need to.
Here’s my advice: If you were a young fan of A Wrinkle in Time, which won the Newbery Medal in 1963, go ahead and re-experience it with your kids. If, like me, the novel was not one of your favorite childhood books, skip it.
Because When You Reach Me isn’t really a modern-day A Wrinkle in Time. Even though Stead has her heroine toting a worn copy of the novel around with her wherever she goes. Even though this heroine, named Miranda, and a buddy debate how Meg and Charles Wallace could have landed back in the broccoli patch five minutes before they left without seeing themselves before they traveled through time. Even though time-travel plays a role in both tales. Even though, in both ends, love is the answer.
No, When You Reach Me isn’t a whole lot like A Wrinkle in Time at all.
The main difference is, When You Reach Me is rooted in the everyday streets of 1970s Manhattan, while A Wrinkle in Time takes place mostly on a weird planet called Camazotz. Miranda deals with a scary homeless man and the social perils of sixth grade; Meg faces an intergalactic force that threatens the planet. Personally, I prefer the more down-to-earth.
When You Reach Me is, at its heart, a puzzle, with clues provided in the form of notes that mysteriously appear in Miranda’s library book, a bag of sandwich rolls, a jacket pocket, a shoe. The sender says he or she is from the future and proves it by predicting what will happen.
“I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own,” one note reads. “I ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.”
The mysterious note-leaver offers Miranda three clues about the future; the last one is “April 27th: Studio TV-15.” That’s when and where Miranda’s mother will be a contestant on The $20,000 Pyramid, hosted by Dick Clark. Like the show, where to win the big money you need to guess what a series of clues have in common, Miranda has to figure out the meaning of not only the notes, but also strange happenings in her life, like: her best friend getting punched in the face for no apparent reason, why the spare key to her apartment disappears from its hiding place, and who stole the $2 bills from the plastic Fred Flintstone bank.
I love that the chapter titles read like answers to the round in the Winner’s Circle on The $20,000 Pyramid: Things that Bounce, Things that Kick, Things You Give Away. I also loved the way the mystery of the notes is woven so neatly into a story about losing a friend and making some new ones, about Miranda’s mother’s frustrations with her job and dream of becoming a lawyer, and about Miranda’s relationships with teachers, shopkeepers and neighbors. I especially liked the flawless pacing in which the mystery is rolled out, the clues dispensed and the answer revealed.
When You Reach Me toys without the idea of time travel without science fiction taking over. Because of that, I think it would appeal to kids who like reading about school and friendships and emotions as much as to those who are into science fiction. The blending of the two is what makes it feel fresh and original, falling into a genre all its own.
