Rebecca Stead Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Anthologies

Rebecca Stead is one of the most famous authors of America who likes to write novels based on the children’s books, young adult, science fiction, teen fiction genres. She has even won numerous prestigious awards in her writing career, including the Newbery Medal in the year 2010. Rebecca won it in the category of the best children’s literature for her second book titled ‘When You Reach Me’. She has also been awarded with the Guardian Prize for her book called ‘Liar and Spy’. Author Rebecca was born on January 16, 1968, in the New York City, New York, The United States. She grew up in her hometown and used to enjoy going to elementary school. Rebecca still remembers how she used to read books under a table or in a windowsill. After the completion her schooling, she enrolled herself at the Vassar College and obtained her bachelor’s degree in the year 1989. As soon as she completed her graduation, author Rebecca got married to an attorney named Sean O’Brien.

The couple has been blessed with a couple of sons. As of today, Rebecca lives along with her family on Manhattan’s upper west side. She says that she used to enjoy writing as a child, but as she grew up, she began thinking that the writing career was impractical. Therefore, she went on to pursue a different career path and became a lawyer. Soon after, she started serving as a public defender and continued to work like that for many years. After the birth of her two sons, author Rebecca decided to start writing again. She likes to give the credit of her success in the children’s book genre to her elder son, who inspired her to bring out her best in the genre. Rebecca describes that she had collected the short stories and ideas for many years in her laptop, which her son destroyed by mistake. With this devastating thing happening to her, Rebecca was extremely disheartened because she considered the materials in her laptop as her serious writings. However, she started writing again with some light hearted story in order to lighten her mood. Eventually, author Rebecca went on to complete the writing work on her debut novel titled ‘First Light’, which was then published in the year 2007. Her other popular book called ‘When You Reach Me’ is set in the New York City during the time between the years 1978 and 1979.

It depicts the story of a 6th grade girl named Miranda, who tells her story in the form of the events that happened in her life in the last few months. She seems to be talking an unseen listener to try and figure out the puzzles and clues about the events. The book is entirely set in a tiny slice located in Manhattan and shows abundant details about the story of Miranda as well as some vivid characters. Author Rebecca has described the book as a suspense with a few elements of supernatural things in it. Miranda is depicted as being a fan of the book ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ written by Madeleine L’Engle. Author Rebecca has made use of several references from this book to add to the mysterious story of Miranda. Till today, author Rebecca has written a total of 4 standalone books in her writing career. Her second novel went one to become a new York Times bestseller as well as won the Boston Globe Award and the Newbery Medal. The other books written by her have also become international bestsellers and won several prestigious awards and honors.

One of the initial standalone books written by author Rebecca Stead was published under the title ‘When You Reach Me’. It was released by the Wendy Lamb publishers in the year 2009. The book features the primary characters in the form of Miranda Sinclair, Marcus Heilbronner, Sal, Richard, and Miranda’s mother. As the novel begins, it is shown that Miranda comes across 4 mysterious letters that change her life completely. She studies in the sixth grade and with the help of her best friend named Sal, she likes to navigate through the neighborhood of the New York City. Miranda has become aware of all the safe places in the city, such as the grocery store, and the people to avoid like a crazy man sitting in the corner. Soon, the mysteries begin to unravel in the life of Miranda. At first, Sal gets hit by a new student for no reason. After this, Sal begins to avoid Miranda and removes her completely from his life. Later, Miranda learns that the apartment key that Miranda’s mother keeps hidden for emergencies has been stolen. Then, she receives a mysterious letter on a small piece of paper in which the writer has said that he can help save the life of her best friend, but for that she has to do a couple of favors for him. One of them is to write back a letter to him soon. When more letters begin to get delivered one after the other, Miranda realizes that the sender knows every detail about her life. And after reading each and every message written in the letter, she realizes that only she can help herself in preventing a tragic death. However, with the final letter, she comes to know that it is too late for her to do anything now.

One of the other initial books written by author Rebecca Stead was released under the title ‘Goodbye Stranger’. It was also published by the Wendy Lamb publishers in the year 2015. This book’s story revolves around the lives of the important characters named Bridge Barsamian, Tabitha, and Emily. At the start of the main plot of the book, author Rebecca has described Bridge Barsamian as an accident survivor, who seems to be wondering why is she still living. Emily is shown as having new curves has an almost boyfriend in her life who wants to take a perfect picture of her. On the other hand, Tabitha tries to make others believe that she is aware about the game of everyone. All the three girls become best friends, but follow a strict rule among them, that is they will never fight with each other. Also, all three of them try to get through the 7th grade as being best friends. The next year, things seem to be quite different for another student named Sherm Russo, who comes to know more about bridge Barsamian. Then, it is shown that an unnamed girl from high school is struggling with betrayal on the eve of the Valentine’s Day. Now, it is to be seen for how long can she hide her struggle in plain sight.