When You Reach Me

 When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

When You Reach Me tells the story of a young girl called Miranda, living in the Upper West Side of New York City, with her mum. When her best friend Sal is punched by a boy he doesn't know for no apparent reason, he starts to shut Miranda out of his life. Things start disappearing and all of a sudden Miranda starts receiving strange notes, that know things no person knows, and about things that have not happened yet, causing Miranda to believe that only she can prevent a tragic death.

The varying storyline of this book makes it so enjoyable to read, in particular the constant twists and turns. Through the book, three storylines are followed - the appearance of Miranda's mum on a game show, Sal not talking to Miranda, and the appearance of a laughing man. The book is action-packed, and constantly enthralling and it's also filled with cliffhangers, so once you start reading you won't be able to stop.

This book isn't actually that long (in comparison to some other books I have reviewed), but it is definitely as good! The only thing I would change would be to make it longer, but that's only because I love it so much! What is also really great is that it's suitable for a wide range of ages, I would say anyone older than 9 or 10 could read this and enjoy it, however the older you are the better you may understand the book so perhaps I would recommend it to 10 or 11 year old's and older.

FictionFan1 Rating: 9/10

If you liked this author you might like: Rebecca Stead, Sharon Creech, E B White

About the author: Rebecca Stead is an American writer, who writes fiction for children and teens. For When You Reach Me she won a prestigious award, and has won other prizes for her various other books.

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First Light by Rebecca Stead

First Light is a story about two worlds colliding and the resulting impact. Thea lives in a cold world, underneath Greenland. In another world, above the ice, lives Peter, who begins the story living in America, but then visits Greenland for his father to do some research about global-warming. Meanwhile, Peter’s mother is meant to be writing a book about mitochondrial DNA, but she gets ‘headaches’ and won’t talk or do anything she normally would insist upon during these periods. But Peter begins to suspect these ‘headaches’ are more than she tells of, some sort of sadness.

In the cold world, Thea is determined to find out more about her mother Mai who is now dead. Thea becomes unsure of whether her grandmother tells the truth when she says Thea’s mother drowned in the lake, and sets out on an expedition to find out the truth. With the help of her cousin Mattias, she embarks on a dangerous quest, to leave her birthplace and seek refuge in the outside world.

When these two very different worlds collide, they unravel a ball of secrets, of mystery and dishonesty. Peter joins Thea on her quest and takes his mother to see the cold world, not for the first time...

This amazing book tells not just a story of bravery, courage and friendship, but also touches on some science, about mitochondrial DNA and global warming. This gives the reader a chance to understand the natural world better, particularly the cold areas of it!

My tendency is to read books about emotional journeys or even physical journeys, but I will typically choose mystery over sci-fi, murder over sci-fi, adventure over sci-fi, love over sci-fi, friendship over sci-fi; in short I am not big on that particular genre. But, like most readers, I will give a book a try and if I don’t like it, put it down and reach for it again in a couple of months’ time. In this case although I am not keen on science fiction, I only needed to read the first chapter before I was convinced that I had to read the whole book! It is my absolute favourite book and has been re-read so many times that the pages are starting to get a bit tatty!

First Light is written in the first person, but after every chapter (5-10 pages) the narrator changes. The three narrators in First Light are Thea, Mattias and Peter and through these three viewpoints, you can understand everyone’s opinion, which is just how a book should be!

FictionFan1 Rating: 10/10

If you liked this author you might like: Sharon Creech, Simon Mayo

About the author: When I was younger, I was given a copy of Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead. Liar and Spy was one of my first proper books that in turn my brother and some of my cousins have read. So when I was asked by my grandmother what authors I liked, I said Rebecca Stead. Since then, she has kindly bought me First Light and I have devoured it. Recently I added When you Reach Me by Rebecca Stead to my collection and enjoyed that as well. These are not the only three books Rebecca Stead has written; she writes for children and teen and has several other books to her name.

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Coming up soon: Stay tuned for my review of The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White and Itch by Simon Mayo...