This novel holds a fantastic* puzzle at its heart.

    By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to hang around their New York City neighborhood. They know where it’s safe to go, and they know who to avoid*. Like the crazy guy on the corner.

    But things start to unravel*.

    Sal gets punched* by a child on the street for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key that Miranda’s mom keeps hidden for emergencies* is stolen. And then a mysterious* note arrives, scrawled* on a tiny slip of paper.

    The notes keep coming, and Miranda slowly realizes that whoever is leaving them knows things no one should know. Each message brings her closer to believing that only she can prevent a tragic death. Until the final note makes her think she’s too late.

    In this taut* novel, every word, every sentence, has meaning and substance. A mixture of genres, it is a complex mystery, a work of historical fiction, a school story and one of friendship, with a leitmotif* of time travel running through it.

    Author Rebecca Stead piles up clues on the way to a moment of intense drama, after which it is pretty much impossible to stop reading until the last page.(SD-Agencies)