When You Reach Me: (Newbery Medal Winner) (Yearling Newbery)

Although I've loved most of my experiences with Newbery novels, reading too many of them close together can make them all start to blend together. Because so many of them are a coming of age story, focusing on a young or boy learning to deal with whatever hardships life has dealt them, some of the details begin to merge together creating a giant Newbery read instead of the individual books.Although some stories have a tendencies to run together, there are some which are a such a w original idea, completely unique unto themselves that they demand that you remember them individually. When You Reach Me by Re Stead is one such story.This book is brilliant. I might repeat that again, because I can't think of a better word to describe the story (unless I'm just going to stick with basically amazing.) I can't imagine the flow charts, timelines and diagrams Stead must have used to create this book. Everything within the story is connected, but nothing feels contrived. Too many times in stories where plot lines overlap and characters connect in unexpected ways, the coincidences become too much and too unrealistic for the necessary suspension of disbelief, and it lessens the enjoyment of the story, because I can't believe any of that would actually happen. When You Reach Me offers no such feeling. It is simply an 11 year old girl trying to come to terms with a life changing experience.Miranda (Mira) is our main character and her voice is strong. Throughout the book, Mira is struggling to determine her place in a world that is suddenly different from what she had always known her world to be. Her best (and only) friend no longer wants anything to do with her, there is a 'crazy-shaped person' living on their corner who sleeps with his head under the mailbox, and (the most disconcerting and unsettling of all) she begins finding letters within her things, asking for assistance from an unknown, unnamed source who seems to know things before they happen. Mira's mind is practical and she finds it very difficult to accept many of these new changes. I love that we are able to watch and listen as Miranda's mind broadens as she learns to accept the changes within her life.One of the complaints I had with this book the first time I read it was the desire to know more about some of the periphery characters. While that is still true to a degree, after the second read through I decided Stead's way was better, especially with Marcus. I believe Marcus is one of my new favorite literary characters. He is just so individual and he lives by such a different set of rules without ever really acknowledging that his way is any different, any more right or wrong, than anyone else's. Although I would love to know more about Marcus and the other great characters in Stead's novel, it is a selfish desire to know everything about everything, not something her novel is actually missing.I refuse to go into too many details here, because this is one book that it would be a shame to spoil. Knowing too much about this book the first time you read it ruins some of its magic. There is so much depth to this story, so much wonder and it is definitely one you must discover on your own. I believe that the brilliance of this story comes from its simple comp ties. Those are what make it such a magnificent first time read, but allows you to enjoy the story more each time you read it. The story is simple enough to appeal to the younger audience it was written for while also being complex enough to not only appeal to s and the older children, but also complex enough to withstand multiple readings. I re-read this book just the other day, about two months after my first read through, and I found myself noticing much that I missed the first time through, and enjoying it just that much more.This book was nothing short of fantastic and managed to hit upon the perfect degree of interest. It left me wanting more of the story and more of the characters, but what I was given filled all the empty places. It was everything it needed to be.

I am 10 and my mom read this to me. It was emotional at times, but it was mostly happily exciting. Definitely read a wrinkle in time before reading this. I definitely had to think about some parts of the book. It was very interesting. It had deep friendships. (And my mom loved it too!)

Borrowing greatly from L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time, Rebecca Stead wrote a wandering story about a young girl who finds herself at the center of a mystery. Though the majority of the book seems to simply be a slice of life, the conclusion is straight out of an M. Night Shyamalan tale. I felt that the interactions among the characters were authentic and unforced. Unlike so many of the self-deprecating narrators in YA fiction, Miranda was confident and yet not precocious (she wasn't the 'best or brightest', but also not unfailingly lacking either). In other words, she was real, average.Though I can't say the 'Ah Ha' moment came as a complete surprise, I did look back at early sections to check the bread crumbs Stead had laid. All in all, this was an enjoyable read and the ending made it worth the while.

Miranda is writing a letter. She doesn't know to whom. She doesn't know why. But someone has asked her the location of the spare key. And to explain the day that her best friend, Sal, stopped wanting to hang out with her. Someone wants Miranda to write it all down ... so she is, slowly.`When You Reach Me' by Rebecca Stead was the winner of the 2010 John Newbery Medal.`When You Reach Me' is sort of like the Georges Seurat painting, "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte". Up close it's just a bunch of tiny, tiny dots - indecipherable and meaningless. But when you stand back, you get the whole picture... and it's kind of magnificent.Stead's novel is set in 1981, and is in part a recollection of her own childhood as a `key kid' in New York. She delves into the curiosities and concerns of many sixth-graders - like losing friends, getting somersault-belly when a cute boy walks past, and facing fears. For Miranda, her biggest fear is the laughing man on the corner street, the man she passes everyday on her way to and from school. He yells out insanities - "bookbag, pocketshoe" - he calls her new friend an `Angel' and Miranda a `Smartkid'.Miranda's other consuming fear though, is that she's losing her best friend, Sal. They have stopped hanging out, upon Sal's request. A run-in with a bully called Marcus has sent Sal into a sort of hibernation, and Miranda doesn't know what to do about missing him.But Stead's novel is bigger than the sum of its parts, and interspersed with Miranda's narrative about cute boy Colin, and working at Jimmy's sandwich shop, are curious asides to an unknown person who has tasked Miranda with writing a letter. This person wants to know the location of the key to Miranda's apartment. They leave notes for Miranda, foretelling of a Christmas present and her mother's appearance on Dick Clark's $20,000 Pyramid game show. This person also warns Miranda that when they meet, they will not look the same ...And therein lies the true brilliance of `When You Reach Me'. On the surface Stead's novel is an enjoyable recollection of a NYC sixth-grader navigating the torrential waters of growing up and moving on. But there's more ... oh! There's so much more. To reveal would be to ruin a wonderfully plotted semi-mystery.What I liked best about Stead's novel is that it was intended for a middle-grade audience, but also appeals to a crowd much older than that. Through Miranda, Stead explores big ideas through tactful and succinct sixth-grade musings, and it's a delight to get Miranda's view of the world.`When You Reach Me' is nothing short of incredible. When you read it through once, you'll want to go back and read it again - hold the book up in a new light and appreciate the delicacy and interwoven complexity. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

Muy lindo libro tanto mi hija de 11 como yo lo disfrutamos.

Veio conforte solicitadol

inizialmente questo libro non mi convinceva molto e sono stata obbligata a leggerlo per la scuola ma è un libro molto bello e lo consiglierei a un pò tutti, non si è mai troppo grandi/piccoli per leggere qualcosa

Perfect for my grand daughter kept her interest and encouraged her reading

Lectura fácil y original enfoque. Una novela bastante cortita cuya lectura suscita distintas sensaciones. En línea con lo que me esperaba. ¡La recomiendo!