Rebecca Stead

Here's the thing about a Rebecca Stead book. Each one reminds me of my father's wooden puzzle ball. As a child, I would spend hours and hours with that puzzle. It never failed to captivate me. Each intricate piece connected with all of the pieces in a specific way to create a sphere.
Rebecca's stories are like that.  Every detail, every word, is an important part of the whole story. There is nothing extraneous.
When I reach the story's conclusion, all of the ideas and images fit together to create a literary work of art.  
That's what I like about her books. 

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Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead

Nine of the puzzle pieces from Goodbye Stranger
1. VW Bug
     "Bug-Buggy ZOO-buggy!"
2. Cinnamon Toast
     "You can't say 'cinnamon toast' and not want cinnamon toast." 
3. Pedometer
     "Exactly ten thousand steps."
4. Comments
     "Eighty-eight comments...scroll down."
5. Stranger
     "Sometimes I feel like a stranger to myself too."
7. Apollo11
     "Of course they knew."
9. Valentine's Day
     "Happy Valentine's Day"... "Yeah, you said that already."
8. Put a pin in it
     "I think that when you don't know, you should wait until you               do....put a pin in it."
6. Friends
     "There was no black line separating Colorado from Utah. There         was no black line separating friendship from whatever might           come next."

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