

On My Bookshelf: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.


Miranda's mother isn't a "helicopter" parent, nor does she try to be Miranda's friend. I also liked the relationship between Miranda and her mother, who trusts her daughter, but not too much. The author doesn't push them into the maturity and drama of many other characters/novels targeting this age group. Miranda and her friends are in sixth grade, still young and fairly innocent. Why I liked it: The simplicity of the characters in When You Reach Me was refreshing. After a truck hits Sal and the crazy old man, Miranda starts to piece together the meaning of the notes, who might be sending them, and why. But then Miranda starts receiving mysterious notes from an unknown sender who seems to know things about Miranda before they even happen. She even befriends Marcus, the boy who punched Sal, who tries to explain the concept of time travel to her, the subject of her favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time. And so Miranda makes some new friends: Annemarie, recently "dumped" by her best friend Julia, and Colin who suggests they get a job at a local sandwich shop. But after one of the boys punches Sal, he doesn't want to walk home or do anything else with Miranda. Walking with Sal makes it a little easier to get past the group of teenage boys hanging out on their stoop and the crazy old man at the mailbox. Basic plot: 12-year-old Miranda walks home from school with her best friend, and only friend, Sal, each day to the apartment building where they both live.
