synaptic chaos

Illusory

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead, hardcover, 208 pages, Wendy Lamb Books, list price: $15.99

I could wax on about wonderful books for teens, (E. Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is another great read), but let’s move on to an equally outstanding novel for middle-grade readers: Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me. Two different librarians — one school librarian and one who works in the public library and is herself the author of middle-grade children’s books — have both predicted that Stead’s book should win the Newbery Award, which is given annually by the Association for Library Service to Children “to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.” In any event, it should end up high on every critic’s best-of-the-year list. Really, it’s that good. It’s one of those all too few and far between novels that you want to reread as soon as you finish them, just to see how the author so successfully wrote a fantasy that feels completely real.

In 1979, 12-year-old Miranda and her best friend Sal are savvy New York kids. They know what’s safe to do, what places to avoid, and how to deal with the strange and bothersome homeless man on the corner of their street. But when Sal gets attacked — for no discernible reason — by one of their classmates, it kicks off a series of disturbing events: Miranda’s apartment key — carefully hidden — disappears, and she gets the first of a series of disturbing and mysterious notes, all of which have something to do with future events. Even as Miranda tries to figure out what’s going on, she has to deal with the realities of life: her crush on her classmate, Colin; her new friendship with Annemarie; and her dislike of Annemarie’s former best friend, Julie. And that’s leaving out the plot line about helping her mother practice to be a contestant on the television show The $20,000 Pyramid. Still, all these diverse strands come together in a most satisfactory way. Best of all, in addition to its thought-provoking plot and its realistic depiction of preteen experiences, When You Reach Me is a wonderful homage to Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, Miranda’s favorite book.

I could wax on about wonderful books for teens, (E. Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is another great read), but let’s move on to an equally outstanding novel for middle-grade readers: Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me. Two different librarians — one school librarian and one who works in the public library and is herself the author of middle-grade children’s books — have both predicted that Stead’s book should win the Newbery Award, which is given annually by the Association for Library Service to Children “to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.” In any event, it should end up high on every critic’s best-of-the-year list. Really, it’s that good. It’s one of those all too few and far between novels that you want to reread as soon as you finish them, just to see how the author so successfully wrote a fantasy that feels completely real.

In 1979, 12-year-old Miranda and her best friend Sal are savvy New York kids. They know what’s safe to do, what places to avoid, and how to deal with the strange and bothersome homeless man on the corner of their street. But when Sal gets attacked — for no discernible reason — by one of their classmates, it kicks off a series of disturbing events: Miranda’s apartment key — carefully hidden — disappears, and she gets the first of a series of disturbing and mysterious notes, all of which have something to do with future events. Even as Miranda tries to figure out what’s going on, she has to deal with the realities of life: her crush on her classmate, Colin; her new friendship with Annemarie; and her dislike of Annemarie’s former best friend, Julie. And that’s leaving out the plot line about helping her mother practice to be a contestant on the television show The $20,000 Pyramid. Still, all these diverse strands come together in a most satisfactory way. Best of all, in addition to its thought-provoking plot and its realistic depiction of preteen experiences, When You Reach Me is a wonderful homage to Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, Miranda’s favorite book.

Have I journeyed too far away
Lost in the distance traveled?
Has what held us close
Become tattered, torn and unraveled?
As I put one foot forward
My journey home is that much nearer.
Thoughts of your frienship
Making my purpose that much clearer.
Driven by this terrible pain in my chest,
Hellish flames will not detour my quest
To deliver a golden thread to mend
The finest tapestry called friend.

Knock, knock, knock.

Hands in her pockets, Life stands on Death’s doorstep.

Knock, knock, knock!

Still Death does not answer the door. Yet light streams from Death’s living room window. Curious, Life creeps through the bushes to Death’s window. She peers in. “That motherfucker IS home.” she whispers. Death is sitting at his desk with his back to the window. He is hovering over a ledger and checking off the names of people he had visited that day.

Disgusted and depressed, life walks home, sits down on the couch and turns on the television.

Luciano Rossetti / ECM Records

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