Stead, R., & Gartner, K. (2009). When You Reach Me. New York, NY: Wendy Lamb Books.

                 

This novel begins in the common “in medias res’ or in the middle with a postcard and Miranda’s mother planning for an appearance on $20,000 Pyramid.  It is set in New York City in 1979.  Miranda is a 6^th grader who is considering writing letters to the ever elusive you.

Her mom’s lawyer boyfriend visits them often.  Miranda keeps her favorite copy of “A Wrinkle in Time” with her always.  Moving back and forth on a fluctuating timeline Miranda keeps receiving notes and realizes that who ever is sending them knows all about her and things that haven’t happened yet.  There are many references to being open minded in order to “understand” things.  Marcus appears.  He is the student who punched Miranda’s friend at an earlier time. Miranda receives several notes that reveal many future events.  Ultimately Miranda gives her mom the law school applications (she has planned to use the money from playing Pyramid for this.)  At the end, we find out that in spite of his negative behaviors, Marcus is the magic thread.

With a lexile of 750 this book targets grades 6 – 8.   It falls under the genre of Science/Historical Fiction.  It addresses adolescent issues as well as magic and the supernatural.  This text could be used in as part of a science discussion on the passage of time and motion.  It could also find connections to The Time Machine when they enter High School.  This novel was a Newberry Medal winner and is certainly one I would recommend.  I found several sites that provided learning links as well as lesson plans using this text.  It might work for middle-school ages but the content level would be a bit immature for a high school audience.