Book of the week: When You Reach Me

I was truly enjoying Rebecca Stead's latest book, When You Reach Me.  I had read her previous book, First Light, and hadn't been too thrilled with it, probably  because it was science fiction, and I am not a science fiction fan at all.  So I was happily surprised when I started reading When You Reach Me and found it to be a mystery.  I love mysteries!  I am not even embarassed to admit that I went though a little Lillian Jackson Braun phase (in high school, of course, when you are expected to experiment).  My mother and I refer to her as the macaroni and cheese of the literary world--pure comfort reading.

Anyway, I started reading When You Reach Me and I was instantly hooked.  Who is leaving Miranda odd letters in intimate places, like her jacket pocket?  And why aren't she and Sal talking anymore?  And what is up with her friend Annemarie's mystery illness?  And why does the Laughing Man hang out under the mailbox all day?  And will her mother win on the $20,000 Pyramid?  And what is that book that she is always reading with the broccoli garden?  So many mysteries!  I was loving it.

Until I came to the end of the book, and found out that this mystery is actually a science fiction book in disguise, and the book in question is A Wrinkle in Time (which of course, I haven't read, because I don't like science fiction).  Boo.  But if you like mysteries and science fiction, or perhaps you did A Wrinkle in Time as a read-aloud and you are now looking for a companion book, check this one out.  It will leave you guessing until the end.