When You Reach Me

Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me. New York: Random House, 2009.

I was intrigued by this book when I picked it up. There is no plot summary on the back cover or inside the dust jacket, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The entire book is written as a series of letters. The main character, Miranda, is writing letters to a person who has been sending her mysterious notes. The letters explain everything that has happened over the course of about two months, starting with the day her friend Sal got punched in the stomach on the way home from school and ending on the day Sal narrowly escaped being run over by a truck. The story in between only makes sense once you get to the very end, but it is definitely worth it. I don't want to spoil it for you, and I'm afraid to explain more and accidentally give away the ending.

Oh, and if you're going to read this book, pick up Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and read that first. You'll thank me later.