Published: 14 July 2009 (print)/14 July 2009 (audio) 
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books/Overdrive Listen Audio
Pages: 199/4 hrs and 19 mins
Narrator: Cynthia Holloway
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Junior Fiction
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars
Four mysterious letters change Miranda’s world.
Miranda and Sal are best friends, but when Sal gets punched by a new kid for no apparent reason, he shuts Miranda out of his life. Then she finds a mysterious note scrawled on a tiny slip of paper:
I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own. I ask two favours. First, you must write me a letter.
Miranda finds other notes left for her in strange places and she realises that whoever is leaving them knows all about her, including things that haven’t even happened yet…
When You Reach Me is a story about friendship and time. It’s an intriguing puzzle with pieces that fit together in the most intricate and unexpected ways.
This was a surprising read and one that offers a mystery, a great story, and engaging characters. I’m not sure what I was expecting when I picked this up, the blub looked intriguing but I was pleasantly surprised at the depth and solid story Stead has created.
I enjoyed the mystery of the letters and the possibility that everything was important but you didn’t know exactly how. You can take guesses at who you think the man at the end of the street is, you can try and work out where the letters are coming from and what it all means. The best part is sometimes it matters and sometimes things are just there.
I loved the narrative voice. Miranda feels twelve but she never feels childish. Stead has written her incredibly well and Cynthia Holloway does a great job narrating. I never felt taken out of the story and the other characters were great as well. They are unique with their own voice and personality and Stead uses that as she reveals to us more and more as the story goes on.
Despite being set in the 70s it never felt like it was set in the past, but it does at the same time. The air of a different time settles over the events of Miranda and her friends but it isn’t obvious or frequently referenced. You could easily forget and read this as a contemporary but there are still enough aspects that put in in the past. Stead doesn’t hide the fact but is clever not to hammer home how things are different.
Stead brings everything together at the end beautifully. It was so satisfying to see it conclude and not only answer questions but to not go over the top either. The simple complexity remaining until the end.
You can purchase When You Reach Me via the following
After her parents’ divorce, Bea’s life became different in many ways. But she can always look back at the list she keeps in her green notebook to remember the things that will stay the same. The first and most important: Mom and Dad will always love Bea, and each other.
