Rebecca Stead’s original and deftly accomplished work explores the significance of moments and the meaning of time. During the 1978–79 school year, Miranda navigates life between the apartment where she lives and her sixth-grade universe. An observant twelve-year-old, aware of the daily dangers in New York City, Miranda pays attention to the potential for things amiss: She avoids the crazy Laughing Man on the corner, carefully conceals her key and money, and creates backup plans. However, she’s caught off-guard the day her best friend, Sal, is punched by a stranger on their walk home from school. Miranda puzzles over the incident on many levels, but is most perplexed by Sal’s sudden emotional distance. Life goes on, and Miranda develops new friends, gets a part-time job, and even finds a surprising new person who appreciates her favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time, as much as she. Although the novel focuses on the mundane details of Miranda’s everyday life, it does so with a keen element of anticipation. Then Miranda receives a mysterious note, meant for her or not, explaining, “I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own. First, you must write me a letter.”At first she is frightened, but eventually, with astute perceptiveness, she deciphers its intent. After completing the novel, readers will want to go back to the beginning and start over to further marvel at its intricate crafting. (Ages 10–13)

"Like A Wrinkle in Time (Miranda's favorite book), When You Reach Me far surpasses the usual whodunit or sci-fi adventure to become an incandescent exploration of 'life, death, and the beauty of it all.'" —The Washington Post

This Newbery Medal winner that has been called "smart and mesmerizing," (The New York Times) and "superb" (The Wall Street Journal) will appeal to readers of all types, especially those who are looking for a thought-provoking mystery with a mind-blowing twist.

Shortly after a fall-out with her best friend, sixth grader Miranda starts receiving mysterious notes, and 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.

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 is the case, then Miranda has a big problem—because the notes tell her that someone is going to die, and she might be too late to stop it.

Winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Fiction
A New York Times Bestseller and Notable Book
Five Starred Reviews
A Junior Library Guild Selection
A PARADE Best Kids Book of All Time
A Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of the Century

"Absorbing." —People

"Readers ... are likely to find themselves chewing over the details of this superb and intricate tale long afterward." —The Wall Street Journal

"Lovely and almost impossibly clever." —The Philadelphia Inquirer

"It's easy to imagine readers studying Miranda's story as many times as she's read L'Engle's, and spending hours pondering the provocative questions it raises." —Publishers Weekly, Starred review