Starred review from June 22, 2009
Twelve-year-old Miranda, a latchkey kid whose single mother is a law school dropout, narrates this complex novel, a work of science fiction grounded in the nitty-gritty of Manhattan life in the late 1970s. Miranda’s story is set in motion by the appearance of cryptic notes that suggest that someone is watching her and that they know things about her life that have not yet happened. She’s especially freaked out by one that reads: “I’m coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.” Over the course of her sixth-grade year, Miranda details three distinct plot threads: her mother’s upcoming appearance on The $20,000 Pyramid
; the sudden rupture of Miranda’s lifelong friendship with neighbor Sal; and the unsettling appearance of a deranged homeless person dubbed “the laughing man.” Eventually and improbably, these strands converge to form a thought-provoking whole. Stead (First Light
) accomplishes this by making every detail count, including Miranda’s name, her hobby of knot tying and her favorite book, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time
. It’s easy to imagine readers studying Miranda’s story as many times as she’s read L’Engle’s, and spending hours pondering the provocative questions it raises. Ages 9–14.
Starred review from July 1, 2009
Gr 5-8-Sixth-grader Miranda lives in 1978 New York City with her mother, and her life compass is Madeleine LEngles "A Wrinkle in Time". When she receives a series of enigmatic notes that claim to want to save her life, she comes to believe that they are from someone who knows the future. Miranda spends considerable time observing a raving vagrant who her mother calls the laughing man and trying to find the connection between the notes and her everyday life. Discerning readers will realize the ties between Mirandas mystery and LEngles plot, but will enjoy hints of fantasy and descriptions of middle school dynamics. Steads novel is as much about character as story. Mirandas voice rings true with its faltering attempts at maturity and observation. The story builds slowly, emerging naturally from a sturdy premise. As Miranda reminisces, the time sequencing is somewhat challenging, but in an intriguing way. The setting is consistently strong. The stores and even the streetsin Mirandas neighborhood act as physical entities and impact the plot in tangible ways. This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will appeal to several types of readers."Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT"
Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from June 1, 2009
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* If this book makes your head hurt, youre not alone. Sixth-grader Miranda admits that the events she relates make her head hurt, too. Time travel will do that to you.The storytakes placein 1979, though time frames, as readers learn, arerelative.Miranda and Sal have been best friends since way before that. They both live in a tired Manhattanapartment building and walk home together from school.One dayeverything changes. Sal is kicked and punched by a schoolmate andafterward barely acknowledges Miranda. Which leaves her to make new friends, even as she continues to reread her ratty copy of A Wrinkle in Time and tutor her mother for a chance to compete on The$20,000 Pyramid. She also ponders a puzzling, even alarming series of events that begins with a note: I am coming to save your friends life, and my own . . . you must write me a letter. Mirandas first-person narrative is the letter she is sending to the future. Or is it the past? Its hard to know if the key events ultimately make sense (head hurting!), and itseems the whys, if not the hows, of apivotal characters actionsare nottruly explained. Yet everything else is quite wonderful. The 70s New York setting is an honest reverberation of the era; the mental gymnastics required ofreadersare invigorating; and the characters, children and adults, are honest bits of humanity no matter in what place or time their souls rest. Just as Mirandarereads LEngle, children will return to this.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)
January 1, 2010
Sixth grader Miranda's life is an ordinary round of family and school. But when she starts receiving anonymous notes that seem to foretell the future, it's clear that all is not as it seems. The story's revelations are startling and satisfying but quietly made. Their reverberations give plenty of impetus for readers to go back and catch what was missed.
(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
Starred review from July 1, 2009
The first real indication that this book is going to get deeply, seductively weird is when broody classmate Marcus engages the heroine, Miranda, in a discussion about a flaw in the logic of A Wrinkle in Time: "So if they had gotten home five minutes before they left, like those ladies promised they would, then they would have seen themselves get back. Before they left." Miranda's life is an ordinary round of family and school, the first characterized by a pretty strong relationship with her mother and Mom's good-guy boyfriend, the second by ever-shifting (and perceptively limned) alliances in her sixth-grade class. But when her best friend is bizarrely punched by another boy on the street, and when she starts receiving anonymous notes that seem to foretell the future, it's clear that all is not as it seems. The mystery provides a thread that manages, just, to keep the plot's several elements together, and the closely observed relationships among the characters make the mystery matter. Closing revelations are startling and satisfying but quietly made, their reverberations giving plenty of impetus for the reader to go back to the beginning and catch what was missed.
(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)