I can't help myself.

So, last month I swore off award-winning books for the summer, but I just couldn't stay away. I didn't read a Pulitzer this month, but I did read a Newbery winner.

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead won the Newbery award in 2010.

It tells the story of Miranda, a thirteen year-old growing up with a single mother in New York City in the late 1970s. One day, the hidden key to Miranda's apartment comes up missing, and then Miranda begins to find small notes in her belongings with cryptic messages written on them that seem to predict the future.

This novel explores many themes. Friendship, identity, racism, time-travel, and death, are just a few. Also, throughout the novel there are multiple reference to A Wrinkle In Time, a book Miranda loves. It's been a really long time since I read A Wrinkle in Time, and I don't know exactly what they are, but apparently in addition to the outright references to the book, the plots of both books also have some similarities.

For being a short book, When You Reach Me is surprisingly complex with many interwoven plot lines. It is the type of book a reader could benefit from reading multiple times, just to see how everything works together from the beginning.

I'm still not sure if I actually liked this one, but even so, it is definitely worth reading.