When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is a story about a 6th grade girl, Miranda, who lives in a small apartment with her mom. She used to be best friends with Sal (her next door neighbor) until he suddenly starts avoiding her and leaving her to walk alone past the “laughing man”, a seemingly crazy man who sleeps under the mailbox outside her building.
She is having enough friend problems, but on top of that, she starts to get strange notes left around her house just after her spare key gets stolen from under the old fire hose outside. Just getting the notes is strange enough, but what they say is even weirder! Part of one of the notes said, “I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own. I ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.” Miranda doesn’t know what to do, or even who wrote them.
Even with all this going on she manages to get a job and make three new friends. All the while, she juggles a class project and helps her mom practice for her game show.
I love Miranda’s character. She’s stubborn and speaks her mind, but that’s not always a good thing. I also like the mom’s character because she sort of likes to joke around but she also is smart. Another character that I like is Richard (the mom’s boyfriend) because he is funny and interesting.
Stead uses foreshadowing all throughout the book to sort of hint toward what happens at the end leaving you wanting to keep reading. It’s almost like you can feel what’s going to happen next, but even so, you’re completely surprised.
It’s hard to put this book under one category because it is a mix of so many. I would recommend this book if you are a fan of sci-fi, realistic fiction, and a little bit of mystery. This is an amazing book and I would also recommend other books by this amazing author.