When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

A year or two ago I read the unabridged version of The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley.  It was a hard slog.  The rambling asides drove me mad, and it was so preachy (Charles Kingsley was a reverend).  But somewhere in there was a story that seems to have influenced many others (people who were smart enough to read the abridged version, no doubt).

For example, one of the characters (either Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby or Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid) grew more beautiful as naughty children learned to behave themselves, reminiscent of Nanny McPhee.  I’m now reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, which features characters named Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which.  They also remind me of the ladies from The Water-Babies.

A Wrinkle in Time influenced Rebecca Stead to write When You Reach Me, a novel about a young girl who receives mysterious notes that seem to predict the future.  Out of the three books mentioned in this post, this is my favourite by far.  I managed to predict much of the ending from the clues and hints throughout the book, but I didn’t feel disappointed (I felt quite clever actually), and I really enjoyed the believable characters.  I can relate to Miranda’s Mom in the following quote from the book.

Best bit of When You Reach Me:

She shook her head slowly.  ‘I don’t know.  I just feel stuck, like I’m afraid to take any steps, in case they’re the wrong ones.  I need a little more time to think.’  She stood up.  ‘The water’s probably boiling by now.  Spaghetti in ten minutes.’

Spaghetti again.  We were kind of stuck, I realised.  In a lot of ways. – Rebecca Stead