When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
What if you found notes left for you by a stranger? What if those notes prove that someone knows what is going to happen in your future? Let’s shine the spotlight on this fantasy:
Summary
Miranda lives in New York City with her mom, who finds out she is going to be a contestant on The $20,000 Pyramid. After coming home from work, her mom is focused on taking care of Miranda and practicing for the show. Her mom’s boyfriend, Richard, and Miranda help her practice, too.
Miranda’s best friend and neighbor is Sal. They walk home from school together each day, following the same route past an interesting man on the street they call “the laughing man.” But one day after school, things start to change. Sal and Miranda are walking home and out of the blue, a boy named Marcus punches Sal. Then Sal stops talking to Miranda. Miranda ends up meeting the boy who punched Sal at school. She talks to him about the book she is reading, A Wrinkle in Time, and time travel. (This will prove to be an important conversation later in the book).
Another day after school, Miranda’s apartment is unlocked and no one is home. Soon after that, she finds a note in her library book. It is a mysterious note from someone who says they will save her friend’s life. They ask for two favors – they need her to write a letter and tell where she keeps her house key. Miranda shares the note with her mom and they have the locks changed.
Then she gets a second note. This note is delivered to the sandwich shop, where Miranda and her friends, Colin and Annemarie, are helping during their lunch period. This note has more specific directions for Miranda. They ask her to make sure her letter tells a story, but they say she can’t start writing it yet because the story she needs to tell has not taken place. Miranda cannot make sense of the notes. But she believes the person writing them must be onto something, because she finds another note proving the person knows about her future. They know about something she will find in Colin’s backpack, something about Christmas Day, about her mom’s upcoming appearance on t.v. and about her science poster.
Miranda continues to try to put clues together in her everyday life to figure out what letter she is supposed to write to the person leaving her the notes. One day after school, she is walking home with Annemarie. She can see Sal up ahead and she sees Marcus walking towards Sal. Sal runs away and crosses the street. But, he doesn’t see a delivery truck coming. “The laughing man” ends up saving Sal’s life. Miranda witnesses it all and her head starts spinning…she begins to put clues together to figure out who wrote the notes and how time travel plays a role in the course of events. Then she realizes she knows the story she is supposed to tell in her letter!
Discussion
Snead pays homage to her favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle, by weaving in a discussion about its major theme and developing a plot line of time travel in this book. This book begins with a quote from Albert Einstein (1931) “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious” and this quote sets up the mysterious events to come.
The events in Snead’s low fantasy book seem realistic and could actually happen, except for the time travel. This book may sound like it includes a series of strange events connected with time travel or it may sound like including the plot line of time travel would confuse the reader with abstract thinking. However, all of the events come together at the end. Snead does an excellent job of pulling the characters, plot lines and clues together to make for an enjoyable read. The story builds as Snead puts all of the pieces in place. Then, readers will fly through the final forty pages of the book as the events pull together.
Miranda serves as the narrator of the book, with her voice speaking to the person who wrote her the notes. Readers get a glimpse into her thoughts and emotions from her doubts about the person writing the notes, to her process of unveiling the mystery. Her conversations with her family and friends help move the story along. Her descriptions about her surroundings prove to be important for the reader.
Miranda is a character who perseveres throughout the book. She never gives up on her relationships with friends, like her best friend, Sal. She stands by her mom in her quest to be successful on the game show. She also never gives up on figuring out the meaning behind the notes and their purpose. She is a believable and relatable. Her relationships with her family and friends seem true to a sixth grader’s experience. This book could work with a male character in the role of the narrator, but it is enhanced with the placement of a female character leading the way through the fantasy. Readers will find themselves thinking the same thoughts and asking the same questions as Miranda.
The plot contains elements that are believable and could really happen. Readers could be surprised by the element of fantasy, which develops later in the book. Stead takes time to situate the story in reality, then introduces the reader to the element of fantasy.
The story takes place in Miranda’s neighborhood in New York City. It is a small scale setting, with many of the events occurring at Miranda’s house, her school, the sandwich shop or on her walk to and from school. Snead provides the reader with details about each location and connects the locations within the neighborhood. Readers will be able to visualize the setting, which is helpful as Miranda pulls the mysterious events together.
The themes within this book reflect themes typically seen in other genres like negotiating relationships within ones family and developing friendships. However, this book also includes themes related to the genre of fantasy like time travel, overcoming an obstacle and completing a task.
Overall, the strength of this book is Stead’s ability to execute a logical story with the detail of time travel. Readers will enjoy the payoff at the end of this book as the groundwork Stead has laid comes together.
Awards/Reviews
Rebecca Stead has received many honors for When You Reach Me. This book was a New York Times Bestseller, winner of the 2010 Newbery Medal and winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for Fiction.
Here are samples of a few reviews for When You Reach Me:
“Discerning readers will realize the ties between Miranda's mystery
and L'Engle's plot, but will enjoy hints of fantasy and descriptions of middle
school dynamics. Stead's novel is as much about character as story. Miranda's voice rings true with its faltering
attempts at maturity and observation.
The story builds slowly, emerging naturally from a sturdy premise. As Miranda reminisces, the time sequencing is
somewhat challenging, but in an intriguing way.
The setting is consistently strong.
The stores and even the streets–in Miranda's neighborhood act as
physical entities and impact the plot in tangible ways. This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will
appeal to several types of readers."
– School Library Journal
“If
this book makes your head hurt, you’re not alone. Sixth-grader Miranda admits that the events
she relates make her head hurt, too. Time travel will do that to you. The story takes place in 1979, though time
frames, as readers learn, are relative. Miranda
and Sal have been best friends since way before that. They both live in a tired Manhattan apartment
building and walk home together from school. One day everything changes. Sal is kicked and punched by a schoolmate and
afterward barely acknowledges Miranda. Which
leaves her to make new friends, even as she continues to reread her ratty copy
of A Wrinkle in Time and tutor her mother for a chance to compete on The $20,000 Pyramid.
She also ponders a puzzling, even
alarming series of events that begins with a note: “I am coming to save your
friend’s life, and my own . . . you must write me a letter.” Miranda’s
first-person narrative is the letter she is sending to the future. Or is it the past? It’s hard to know if the key events ultimately
make sense (head hurting!), and it seems the whys, if not the hows, of a
pivotal character’s actions are not truly explained. Yet everything else is quite wonderful. The ’70s New York setting is an honest
reverberation of the era; the mental gymnastics required of readers are
invigorating; and the characters, children and adults, are honest bits of
humanity no matter in what place or time their souls rest. Just as Miranda rereads L’Engle, children will
return to this.” - Booklist
Teacher’s ToolsStudents could also read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle to compare and contrast plot, themes and literary elements. Both books could be used in a genre study about fantasy. Students could read various fantasy books within Literature Circles.
Students could watch an old episode of The $20,000 Pyramid, then play the game in class with topics related to their classroom studies.
Students could discuss the Albert Einstein quote at the beginning of the book “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.” Students could discuss what Einstein meant by his quote and how it relates to this book. Students could create two timelines: one for the believable events in the story and one for the mysterious events, the discuss how the two connect and overlap.
Bibliographic Information
Stead, Rebecca. 2009. When You Reach Me. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. ISBN 978-0-385-73742-5.
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