When You Reach Me

#771
Title: When You Reach Me
Author: Rebecca Stead
Publisher: Yearling
Year: 2009
208 pages

4.5 stars for this very sweet and earnest middle reader. Though the plot is soft science fiction-ish (there are reasons that A Wrinkle in Time is invoked), this is a foil for the story of transitioning to adolescence. You might kiss someone, or have an insight about a friend, or experience a flash of satori when your brain becomes abstract enough to grasp the paradoxes inherent in time travel.

I enjoyed the chapter headings that alluded to The $20000 Pyramid, which suggested that Miranda is now able to find patterns not only in the hexagonal bathroom tiles but also in her life. I felt great nostalgia as she encountered classmates who were suddenly revealed to have spent time thinking about physics, time, and UFOs. I was pleased to encounter another sympathetic dentist in children's literature, not having seen one since Stuart Little. I was especially appreciative of the conclusion, which holds both the promise of the future and the certainty of death, not tidied up, but acknowledged as inevitable. Spoiler (highlight to read): I completely dig that the Asperger-y kid who figures out time travel uses it to go back to protect another kid from himself--he was slow to get the concept of emotion in relationships, but when he got it, it apparently really stayed with him!