When You Reach Me

The winner of the 2010 Newbery Award is When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. This is a book our library already owned and I remembered checking it in. Everybody say it: Don't judge a book by its cover! Well, I did and I wasn't interested. I read the jacket summary and passed on it. First Light written by the same author had been on the 2010 Rebecca Caudill list and of course I had read it. And LOVED it. It was a sci-fi/fantasy in the same vein as The Giver and The City of Ember. But this new book didn't look like it was in the same category so I put it on the new book shelf without a second glance.

And then it won the Newbery. Secretly, I always wish that I've already read the winner. #1 It's one less book for me to read and #2 It says I can recognize a good book. So like a good librarian, and with a hung head, I snagged the first copy I found, checked it out and dove right in. Glad to say I was not disappointed. There is a mystery and an element of sci/fi. And if you like Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, you'll be ahead of the game.

The setting is 1970s New York City. This is not considered Historical Fiction when the librarian recommending it was born during the same decade, however, the American Girl Store already considers the 70s to be historical (Julie). UGH. You might have to explain the $20,000 Pyramid game if you're old enough to remember it. It's important because the mother of the main character, Miranda, is invited to play the game on national television.

Because I don't wish to spoil anything, I am going to share my favorite moment of the book. And I think the book is all about love. Miranda has recently lost her best friend, Sal, for unknown reasons. He ignores her now without explanation and it hurts. So Miranda makes a new friend, Annemarie. Unfortunately, this leaves Annemarie's best friend Julia out in the cold. One day, Miranda watches the way Julia looks at Annemarie and recognizes the lovesick look that she has for Sal. Miranda sees her own hurt mirrored in Julia's. Then she states "Sometimes you never feel meaner than the moment you stop being mean." And the healing between the kids begins.

Tomorrow The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

The Newbery Medal is presented annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to children's literature in America published in the previous year. It is named after John Newbery, an 18th-century bookseller and is awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The first Newbery Medal was given in 1922. (Yesterday, I mispoke and said it was 1923. But then I checked, and the first award went to a work of non-fiction, so in my mind I ignore it.)