When You Reach Me won the Newbery Medal for children's literature in 2010, and we don't think it's because the novel's puzzles are simple.

Miranda is caught in a web of questions: Who is sending the notes? Why? And how can the note-writer know things that haven't even happened yet? Our heroine unties these knots page by page, and we get to be detectives along with her. At the beginning of the book, we learn that Miranda has been finding creepy notes around her apartment that weirdly predict the future – her future. That's where the simplicity ends, though.

Her single mom is a paralegal (she works in a law office, but isn't a lawyer) who wears crazy colored tights, and her favorite book is Madeline L'Engle's classic A Wrinkle in Time. When You Reach Me tells the story of a sixth-grader named Miranda who is a latchkey kid in New York City in the late '70s. The premise of the novel is simple enough to wrap your head around. See? One minute you're reading, and the next thing you know, you're one of those dolphins. When I reached the end, when they saw just how everything fitted together, they were completely and utterly delighted' ( source). Reviewer Monica Edinger, who is also a teacher, says that her students 'became obsessed detectives when I read this book to them – examining the map-like cover for clues, studying the clever chapter titles and constantly recalibrating their ideas as more pieces of the puzzle were revealed. Heck, it's like one of those trippy 3D eye paintings** that you stare at until a bunch of dolphins finally jump out at you – and you're sucked in. It's a riddle wrapped in an enigma cloaked in mystery. That means you're going to love Rebecca Stead's young adult novel, When You Reach Me, which New York Times reviewer Monica Edinger calls a 'thrilling puzzle' ( source). Are you a fan of mysteries? Are you a natural Sherlock Holmes? Do you have fun solving puzzles and piecing together clues? Well, good.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead