When You Reach Me

When You Reach Me (2009) is a middle-grade novel by Rebecca Stead. It won the Newbery Medal and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for fiction and has been included in numerous best book lists for young adult readers. Stead's Liar and Spy won the 2013 Guardian Children's Fiction Award. She is also the author of Goodbye Stranger (2015) and The List of Things That Will Not Change (2020), and co-authored The Lost Library (2023) with Wendy Mass (A Mango Shaped Space, Every Soul A Star).

The story follows the adventures of Miranda Sinclair, a 12-year-old female protagonist who tries to solve the mystery of who might be coming to save her best friend’s life. Themes of time travel and coming of age converge as Miranda solves the mystery and grows into a more comfortable and confident version of herself.

Plot Summary

Chapter 1 takes place three weeks before April 27, 1979, in New York City, where Dick Clark’s hit game show The $20,000 Pyramid is filmed. Miranda Sinclair, the narrator, explains that her mother has been selected as a contestant for the show.