When You Reach Me
Rebecca Stead (2009)
“A sixth-grader in 1970s New York receives notes from the future — and has to figure out who sent them before it is too late to stop a death.”
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Thematic connections across eras and genres — books that talk to each other.
A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L'Engle
The direct intertextual model — Miranda's favorite book, and the novel that establishes time travel and sacrifice as emotionally rather than mechanically significant
The Giver
Lois Lowry
Another Newbery winner that blends realistic child's-eye observation with a science-fiction premise and a central theme of sacrifice for the good of another
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
E.L. Konigsburg
New York City through a clever child's eyes — the same pleasure in a carefully constructed mystery, the same trust in the reader's intelligence
The House on Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros
Episodic coming-of-age set in a specific urban neighborhood, where place is as formative as character
Wonder
R.J. Palacio
Contemporary middle-grade novel told from a child narrator with unusual perceptual gifts, exploring friendship and what it costs to see people clearly