Since winning the Newbery Medal last year, I've been curious to read this book. I can see how it fits in the Newbery category as it has an intriguing narrator with a quirky/interesting story, but at the same time not much happens until the end of the book. Though some could argue, that the nuances of the little things friends deal with in school are monumental things happening and that the strange letter frame keeps the mystery moving it along, but really its a string of incidents that are compiled together until the grand finale. This is not to say I did not like the book. On the contrary, I enjoy books of this nature.
Some spoilers: Miranda lives in New York in 1978 and she has just discovered the loss of her best friend after he chooses to ignore her after a "bully" punches him in the stomach in front of her. She spends the year helping her mom study for the 20,000 Pyramid Game Show and trying to figure out why Sal no longer wants to be friends with her. Not one to just sit by, she finds two new friends in Colin and Annemarie. But sooner than later, mysterious notes start to appear in her life and these notes know things that a person can't possibly know yet because they haven't happened yet. Based on her obsession with Madeleine L'Engle's a Wrinkle in Time, a coming-of-age story quickly melds into a sci-fi bender of time travel.
I thought the strange sci-fi twist is what elevated this story...but as Marcus questions L'Engles' Time Travel premise, I couldn't help but question Stead's as she based the story in 1978 so thirty or so years later wasn't far enough in the future to imagine someone was capable of time travel or that there was a giant dome that protects future humans from the sun, after all, we are reading this book in 2009 supposedly. But that's a small thing to pick at. Secondly, my only other issue was that her friendship with Sal wasn't established enough in the beginning, so every time she pines after her loss, I can't feel it because Sal still feels like a stranger to me.
Intended reading level: Grades 5-8 Interest level: Grade 4
Genre: coming-of-age, friendship, (sci-fi sort of)
Comparable Titles: A Wrinkle in Time, Ida B. and her plans to maximize fun, avoid disaster and possibly save the world
Book Connections: time travel movies, Madeleine L'Engle, Game Shows, two dollar bills, deli sandwiches
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