Miranda’s favorite book is Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, a novel about time-traveling children. The sender - whose knowledge of events seems to transcend the laws of time and space - may or may not live near the apartment Miranda shares with her mother on the Upper West Side of New York. Stead tells a cleverly plotted story about a bright 12-year-old named Miranda, who tries to decipher a series of mysterious and slightly ominous notes from an unknown sender in 1978–1979. Maybe it depends on how you define “distinguished.” By my lights, the ALA citation implies: “a book that will seem as great decades from now.” And I’m not convinced that When You Reach Me passes that test, or that Rebecca Stead will hold her own against Newbery winners like Russell Freedman ( Lincoln: A Photobiography) and Katherine Paterson ( Bridge to Terabithia, Jacob I Have Loved). But is it the year’s “most distinguished contribution” to children’s literature? When You Reach Me won the American Library Association’s latest John Newbery Medal, and it’s certainly an enjoyable and well-written book. By Rebecca Stead, 197 pp., Wendy Lamb/Random House, $15.99. A 12-year-old girl tries to figure out who’s sending her mysterious notes in a novel that pays homage to Madeleine L’Engle
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