When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
My rating: 5/5 cats
a super short review, karenstyle!!
someday, i am going to venture down to the second floor where the kids/teen section is and i am going to grab a whole bunch of books that i like and i am going to just shelve them in my adult fiction section because the young’uns shouldn’t get to hog everything that is good in this world and also not have to pay rent, and there is something creepy about a 35 year old man browsing the shelves in teen fiction.* i am doing everyone a favor here.
this book is great. and sure, it won the newbery and it is intended for children but it is a sweet, sad book about friendship and family and sacrifice that most adults could really appreciate.** i really don’t want to go into too much detail – i am finding it really hard to write this review because the less you know before reading this, the better.
just know that the storyline has a wonderful, unusual shape, and she does a really good job with revealing other characters through her narrator’s eyes. it is always believable, as her perceptions of people change as she learns more about them – nothing is black and white – there is a great deal of nuance that feels very natural. all this and time travel, too??
in short: great, great, great.
i am not giving ariel back her copy, nope.
*meaning greg, who i frequently send down to fetch the teen fiction books i can’t be bothered going to get myself.
** i say “most”, because i can sense david looking up from his vinyl fetish book long enough to raise a questioning eyebrow at me.
