Looking For Newbery - When You Reach Me

Back in the summer, I read When You Reach Me for both a first and second time. It absolutely knocked my socks off both times.

Because it is getting so much "buzz" with regard to the Newbery, and because I wanted to pick a great book for my class read aloud coming back from holiday break, what better book than When You Reach Me?! Just to triple check myself, though, I reread it for a third time yesterday. I am amazed that even in a 3rd read, this book just continues to both surprise and delight.

In the review I posted this summer, Mary Lee (A Year of Reading) posted a comment about how great the chapter titles were as well. She said they would make great writing prompts. Better yet, since I missed the connection the first two times, is how well the titles correlate with an important strand in the story. I don't know how Rebecca Stead managed to tie up all the story strands by the end of the book. She is truly a gifted author.

Other accolades for When You Reach Me:

1) It is on the Mock Newbery list for the Allen County Library.

2) It made five of the "best of the year" lists (thanks to Jonathan Hunt at Heavy Medal for this post).

3) Out of 6 possible review journals, it received stars in 5 of them (thanks to Shelftalker for the 2009 Starred Books Wrap-Up).

4) It made Fuse #8's mid-year Newbery prediction list.

I truly believe that When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is a book worthy of the Newbery award. Fingers crossed until January 18!!

When You Reach Me

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is a book I won't forget for quite a long time. I was fortunate enough to get a review copy from Sally Oddi, owner of Cover to Cover. I had put it in my TBR pile until I read Mary Lee's post about this book (she even links to other reviews). It immediately became the book I needed to read next.

Because of Mary Lee's comments, I made the time to both read and reread this book -- I'm glad I did. There were so many clues to what happens at the end (even the front cover makes sooooooo much more sense); I just missed/overlooked some of them the first time through. For this reason, and a bazillion others, I am definitely thinking about reading this aloud to my students next year.

Yes, the rereading strategy is great, but as Fuse #8 mentions in her comments about the book when she added When You Reach Me to her mid-year Newbery list, the story jumps back and forth in time. Thinking through these jumps with students would be important. I do worry that a student reading this on their own might get confused, or not even realize that there were changes in time. Or maybe this is just an excuse to read this book with as many people as possible. :)

I'm being a little vague in this post because I can't tell many things without giving the important plot points away. Giving those plot points away will detract from your reaction to the ending. I will say it is character driven, but character motivation in When You Reach Me is critical -- yet another great conversation to have with students.

This book also has a section that deals with someone trying to be successful on the game show, The $20,000 Pyramid, that brought back many fond college memories for me. Lots of time spent playing this game with college friends.

I have read so many fabulous books this summer, but When You Reach Me is by far one of the best.