I spent my weekend running errands, listening to an audiobook, watching hockey, AND bonding with Rebecca Stead.
Way back in yesteryear, I read When You Reach Me (2009) by Ms. Stead. It was one of those titles that beckoned because of the gold medal on its front cover (Newbery winner). Now I've said it before and I'll say it again: those awards don't guarantee you'll like the book even a bit, but being a librarian, I feel it falls under the "other duties as assigned" clause to keep abreast of the latest winners. So When You Reach Me found its way on to my nightstand and, subsequently, into my heart.
I love that book.
Fast forward to my end-of-the-year ordering for le library which I completed last month. Ms. Stead herself has another title! And having book talked and promoted the heck out of When You Reach Me, I knew I needed that new title in our library. Not to mention it had great reviews. So I went ahead and ordered Liar & Spy (2012), and you know what? It came in this week! I spent Wednesday and Thursday rereading When You Reach Me and grabbed Liar & Spy on the way out of the door Friday afternoon.
Here's what I think:
When You Reach Me is set in NYC in the late 70's. Miranda, the main character, lives in a teeny apartment with her paralegal mother who has just been notified she's been selected to appear on a game show in a few months. Miranda spends her free time helping her mother practice and hanging out with her very best friend Sal who lives a floor down in their apartment building. That is until Sal gets punched on the way home from school and mysteriously decides he doesn't want to talk to Miranda anymore. She must learn to navigate the intricacies of 6th grade on her own. And things get very complicated when Miranda's hidden apartment key goes missing and notes with cryptic messages keep turning up in her coat pockets.
Mystery subtly permeates the book starting with the first chapter. Miranda, the narrator, is writing to someone, but that someone is not revealed until the end of the story leaving you wondering not only who this someone may be but why it is so important that Miranda write them. Though the book seems mostly about Miranda's life, you know all these details must be important, must mean something more because of this mysterious someone, this letter Miranda is writing, so you are invested. And those details of a 12 year olds daily life do end up meaning so much more, more about regret and righting past wrongs.
When You Reach Me is simple and endearing and beautiful. Here is a female narrator in a middle grade fiction novel who isn't spunky or precocious or really anything special. Miranda is entirely normal and unaffected, and I think that is why I love her. And she leads a seemingly normal life that is, in the end, part of a very abnormal event. Stead has managed to write a mystery without all the usual trappings of children's mystery: no high suspense, no sneaking around with flashlights, no juvenile spies. She has displayed a true mysterious tale in a very typical child's life which makes it more magical and even believable.
Up next: Liar & Spy.
I'll admit I had high hopes. And it was good, but...well, let me tell you the plot.
After his father loses his job, Georges (named after Seurat...silent s) moves from the only home he's ever known, a lovely brownstone in Brooklyn, into an apartment building with his parents. His mom is pulling double shifts as a nurse in an intensive care unit and is hardly around to hear about Georges day. And he could use some parental guidance. Georges spends his time at school bullied by the "cool table" but things start looking up when he joins a spy club in his new apartment building run by a kid his age named Safer. Safer knows the going ons of all his neighbors and recruits Georges to help him figure out just what the elusive Mr. X on the 4th floor is up to. As you can imagine, Safer and Georges get in way over their heads and must determine what is really important in order to save themselves.
On its own, I would call Liar & Spy good, not great. But read alongside When You Reach Me, I must say it seems a little lackluster. It is a fine read, but I wouldn't go falling all over myself to get a kid to read it. I suppose you aren't as invested in the mystery. Maybe one of its shortcomings is you don't even know a mystery is to be solved until the end of the book if that makes any sense. In When You Reach Me, you know from the first chapter Miranda is writing an important letter to an unknown recipient. From the start, you're invested and curious to discover who this recipient may be. The mystery solved in Liar & Spy turns out to have nothing to do with Mr. X leaving you feeling a bit deflated. So you were invested in that story line? Well, it really wasn't a story line after all. It turns out the story is in Safer and Georges and their lives. And though that sounds kind of sweet, it ends up falling flat. Miranda's is a story that seems to carry you on. It leaves you with a feeling, a sort of hopefulness, while Georges' story just kind of wraps up in a nice package.
Miranda, Miranda has grit. And I love her.
So the moral of this story is, read When You Reach Me. Just do. Or get the closest 12 year old to.
P.S. I received notification that NW, Zadie Smith's latest novel, is being held for me at the pubic library. Yay! I was honestly 44th in line for this book and kind of thought I'd never get it, and I did!
P.P.S. Other things that happened recently: I signed up for a marathon.
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