When You Reach Me

When You Reach Me

By Rebecca Stead

150 ratings 167 reviews 203 followers
Interest LevelReading LevelReading A-ZATOSWord Count
Grades 4 - 8Grades 3 - 8W4.539253

This Newbery Medal winner that has a fantastic puzzle at its heart has been called “smart and mesmerizing,” (The New York Times), “superb” (The Wall Street Journal), and “incandescent” (The Washington Post).
 
When Miranda starts receiving mysterious notes, she doesn’t know what to do.
 
The notes tell her that she must write a letter, a true story, and that she can’t share her mission with anyone—not even her best friend, Sal.
 
It would be easy to ignore the strange messages, except that whoever is leaving them has an uncanny ability to predict the future. If that’s the case, then Miranda has an even bigger problem—because the notes tell her that someone is going to die, and she might be too late to stop it.
 
“Lovely and almost impossibly clever.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

Winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Fiction
A New York Times Bestseller and Notable Book

Publisher: Andersen Press
ISBN-13: 9781849392129
ISBN-10: 1849392129
Published on 1/6/2011
Binding: Paperback

Book Reviews (162)

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When You Reach Me is about a girl named Melanie who reads this book about time traveling, which is the main theme of this story, but the book cover does not tell you. Most of this book is filled with Melanie and her friend's adventures at school and when there is no school. Melanie had recently lost a friend, Sal because when they were walking home from school, a kid she later finds out was a kid named Marcus Sal suddenly won't be friends with her. She makes new friends and the always walks past this man that sleeps under a mailbox and says these clue words. Since Melanie and Sal were not friends she was getting strange notes from someone, clues about something. Later Marcus and another girl teach Melanie about time travel, that there are pictures or moments and we pass through them. One day at the end Marcus runs up to Sal to say sorry but Sal runs away thinking he will get punched, even though Marcus was just wanting to say sorry. But Sal runs into the street and there is a truck coming. Suddenly the crazy old man that lives under the mailbox saves Sal but dies. With all the notes and clues from him, she finds out who to give the stuff she had found to, Marcus. I thought this book was fun to read and shocking at the end when you find out why the crazy old man was there, like a mystery and sci-fi. I would recommend this book to people 9+ years old. (Re Post)

In this book, Miranda's best friend, Sal, completely ditched her after getting punched on the corner of Broadway Street in the Big Apple. A couple weeks later, Miranda receives anonymous messages saying he/she will come to save her friend and to write a note back. Will her friends get hurt? Who is writing the notes? Read the book to find out!

Miranda lives with her mom in an apartment. One day on the way back from school Sal gets punched in the face.After this Sal stops talking to Miranda and he ignores her. Miranda eventually becomes friends with Annaliese and Coliin together they start working at a sandwich shop. This was such an interesting book to read. This book kind of tells you who sent the notes if you read and try to figure it out before she figures it out.

This is a great novel with lots of twists and turns in the story line. This novel is completely original and not like another book I have ever read. I wanted to read it for a while, but I only got to reading it this summer. I love this mystery novel.

This is a great book. I alows the reader to speculate about the ending but still be surprised. I enjoy the fact that the book didn't surround just one point, but expanded on other things as well

I really like this book because in the beginning the book tells about Miranda's life and then it starts to get scary. Also, the book gets really sad at the end. At the end, I was sort of confused because it said that Marcus was the laughing man when Marcus got older.

This wonderful story is so beautifully written! Rebecca Stead has such a unigue way of writing that is different from other writers. When You Reach Me is a mystery/drama about a girl named Miranda. Everything (and everyone) in her life is growing and changing, and to make things worse, she begins recieving crazy notes out of nowhere. This novel shows how Miranda deals with the mysteries of her life and the notes. The reader willingly watches Miranda grow into herself throughout the story. This is always one of my top recommendations if anyone asks and i recommend it to you also! It is a great read that you won't forget!!!

A heartwarming and bittersweet story, When You Reach Me is a perfect example of a good read that will allow you to read the story of a science fiction adventure that Miranda travels to learn from.

This book is amazing! It shows the story of Mirandas adventures. The author includes suspense to make the reader keep reading. The book was inspired by A Wrinkle In Time, so if you like that book, you will love this!

Miranda is a 6th grader who lives with her mother in New York City. Her best friend is named Sal. Her favorite book in the world is A Wrinkle in Time. Miranda has just received the last of a series of letters, predicting that her mother will be a contestant on the $20,000 Pyramid and telling her that one of her friends is in terrible danger. If she wants to save them, and the letter-writer, she'll need to write a letter of her own.

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