Comments on: When Did When You Reach Me Reach You?

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:20:19 +0000

Nina! I am recently embarking on a rather scary adventure called grad school for my MLS. I know I want to work in childrens or young adult related work but I’m not sure if county or school is the way to go. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! I am a fellow Newbery lover and am currently trying to read through all of the past winners. I have loved your blog for awhile now and have tried to keep up with you guys as you read the Newbery “possibles.” Thanks for your time!

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:55:32 +0000

I also received a copy from Monica’s fourth graders. I wanted a copy for my Mock Newbery Club. I also read it aloud to a class of fifth grade boys who hung on every word. We were thrilled when it won the top award this year.

By: DaNae

DaNae — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:21:19 +0000

I was one of the lucky winners of Monica’s give-away too. It arrived on our last day of classes in early June. I still treasure the little sticky-note Monica stuck inside. (I know, it doesn’t take much to thrill this girl. I wrote about my delirious delight here: thelibrariest.blogspot.com/2009/06/it-reached-me-sooner-than-expected.html ) That little ARC was passed around more than Purell in school lunch line, making a quick trip up to Portland and back before the week was out. It played a starring role in my summer book club, it helped out in our student Mock Newbery, and is now vacationing in a 5th grade classroom with its newer, shinier sisters as part of a literature circle group.

Needless to say I was hooked from the beginning and never wavered from it as my favorite for gold, although I doubted at the end that it would come away on top, mainly due to Jonathan’s more than convincing arguments.

I want to add my thanks, Nina and Jonathan, for these intelligent and illuminating discussions. I can’t wait for next time.

By: Jonathan Hunt

Jonathan Hunt — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:36:49 +0000

I got my copy from Monica, too! I remember hearing the buzz sometime in the late spring. By the time the book was actually published, I think it was the frontrunner. By early September, at the very latest, it had assumed that position.

By: Miriam

Miriam — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:36:57 +0000

I slapped a hold down on WYRM as soon as it showed up in the New York Public Library catalog, because Betsy Bird had been extolling its virtues on Fuse#8 for MONTHS. And then waited for it to come in. And then read it all in one sitting, mostly on an airplane. I think I then passed my library copy on to a coworker, who passed it on to her roommate (and it still got returned on time, without needing to be renewed.)

Anyway, thank you thank you to Nina and Jonathan for the blog. It’s a good thing we have Betsy’s top 100 Chapter Books list starting in February (and BOB, of course), or I would be very worried about blog deprivation.

By: Monica Edinger

Monica Edinger — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:15:36 +0000

You got that right, Nina. I vividly remember our picking up the ARCs and then communicating over email after we’d first read it.

I’m so glad you highlighted the communal aspect of this. Because there was so much buzz by the time WYRM published people may not realize that it was not a hot title back in January 2009. Certainly I saw no mention of it until we and others began posting our reviews on goodreads and then a bit later on blogs.

Those who had picked up ARCs and read them told others how great it was, those others requested ARCs and read it, and the whispers turned into buzz. So much so that Random House had to do a second ARC printing to keep up with the requests (which is why I had those extra ARCs to give away).

It was definitely HOT by the time it published in July and smoking by this January! It is pretty wonderful to be part of something like that.

Thanks so much again for this wonderful blog. I’ll miss it.

By: sue

sue — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:18:46 +0000

I was one of the lucky winners of the ARC contest that Monica’s 4th graders ran in the late spring when she had some ARCs to give away. I wrote about how I wanted to read it early on so that I would be able to consider it for my Mock Newbery at my school. I loved it and chose it for the Mock Newbery. All summer while I was still reading crazily (I have to make my choices by September), I knew that this was a definite choice. The first time for me that one of my early choices has won: as you say, quite a thrill.