Book Review #2

Molly Jenkins

Book Review #2

Period 4

14 December 2016

 When You Reach Me

Rebecca Stead

Science Fiction and Mystery Novel

197 pages
John Newbery Medal

The novel, When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead, is about a young mother and her thirteen- year-old daughter, Miranda. Miranda has a former best friend named Sal, and they had always been best friends since they were little. Every day, the two best friends would walk home together trying to avoid the “laughing man,” who was a homeless man that always had his head under the mailbox and seemed a little bit crazy. One day when the two best friends were walking home from school, a kid with a green coat came up to Sal and punched him in the stomach. After that day, Sal stopped hanging out with Miranda and he started playing more basketball. Miranda finally met the kid in the green coat, whose name is Marcus, he’s kind of weird and can tell time just by looking at the sky but they both enjoyed reading the book, The Wrinkle in Time, and they love to talk about time travel. They became good friends. A few weeks later, Miranda had been receiving a bunch of letters from an “unknown you,” who had been seeming to be predicting the future. One letter brought up that the “you” was on their way to save Miranda’s best friend. Who was this “you” and how are they traveling time? A few days later, Sal was walking home from school and he saw Marcus, so Sal decided to run into the street to get away from him. A bus was about to hit Sal but the “laughing man” ran and pushed Sal out of the way. The “laughing man” had sadly had been killed. In the laughing man's shoe, laid a letter which stated that it should be given to Marcus, who turned out to be the “laughing man” himself. The “laughing man” was Marcus in the future.

I had many different thoughts about When You Reach Me. There was some parts of the book that I loved so much and then there was also some parts that I disliked, and let me explain why. First, I loved Miranda’s personality, she always thought of the bright side of things and always tried to keep her head up. Another thing I really enjoyed was how the author incorporated the award-winning book, The Wrinkle in Time. If you haven’t read that book, it’s all about time travel which played a major role in this book. The last thing I enjoyed in this book was the “laughing man.” Even though people thought he was crazy and he was only on this earth to scare people away, the “laughing man” had a huge heart and a great amount of feelings towards other people. He risked his own life for a kid he barely talked to and even knew. In one of the letters the “laughing man” wrote he said,” Einstein says common sense is just habit of thought. Its how we’re used to thinking about things, but a lot of the time it just gets in the way.” This quote tells me that the “laughing man” was very wise in what he wrote. He believed that common sense gets in the way and you should only believe in your knowledge and what you have learned. There were many things I didn’t enjoy about this book. First, the author brought so much unnecessary detail. This detail got me confused throughout the story and made the story sound really complicated. Another thing I didn’t enjoy was why Sal stopped being friends with Miranda after he got punched. It wasn’t Miranda’s fault that Sal got punched, they were best friends up until that day. The book gave no solid reason to why he left Miranda, he just left her. Miranda said, “I used to think of Sal as being part of me: Sal and Miranda, Miranda and Sal. I knew he wasn’t really, but that’s the way it felt.” I really enjoyed the ending to this book. I never expected the “laughing man” being Marcus, it felt to me that they were two completely different people. I would highly recommend this book to other readers. When You Reach Me is one of the best books I have ever read!