When You Reach Me

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Stead, Rebecca. WHEN YOU REACH ME. 2009. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. ISBN: 9780385737425.

2. PLOT SUMMARY

In Rebecca Stead’s WHEN YOU REACH ME, sixth grader Miranda is a latchkey kid who lives with her mother in New York City. In an apartment in the same building lives Sal, who has been Miranda’s best friend her entire life. Miranda explains: “I used to think of Sal as being a part of me: Sal and Miranda, Miranda and Sal.” However, after an incident with a mysterious boy on the way home from school, Sal first stops walking home from school with Miranda and then hardly spends any time with her at all. Miranda must adjust to Sal’s sudden distance, and gradually makes new friends. Meanwhile, the story takes a supernatural turn, when letters start to arrive predicting events before they happen. As Miranda helps her mother prepare to be a contestant on the popular television game show $20,0000 Pyramid, she must solve the great mystery of what happened to her friendship with Sal, why a homeless man loiters under the mailbox at the corner of her block, and who has written the mysterious letters.


3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

In the 2010 Newbery Award winning WHEN YOU REACH ME, author Rebecca Stead masterfully writes a tale that incorporates a little bit of everything—mystery, science fiction, adventure, and realism. Readers travel through time as the story unravels and answers to questions become apparent. Stead tells the story from Miranda’s perspective, including her worry and confusion over the mysterious notes she keeps receiving. As Miranda explains “I check the box under my bed, which is where I’ve kept your notes these past few months. There it is, in your tiny handwriting: April 27th: Studio TV-15, the words all jerky-looking, like you wrote them on the subway. Your last ‘proof.’”

Readers will relate to twelve-year-old Miranda who has a strong relationship with her single mother and her mother’s boyfriend, Richard. Stead skillfully portrays an easy and natural relationship between mother and daughter—whether it be Miranda teasing her mother about a wacky outfit or how they routinely practice questions for her mother’s upcoming appearance on the popular 1970s game show $20,000 Pyramid. Stead also takes great care to describe the realistic worries of the pre-teen main character, whether it be her embarrassment over her apartment’s condition when a wealthy girl from her school comes to visit or her feelings toward a boy she makes sandwiches with at a local shop.

Humorous elements appear throughout the story, such as when Miranda explains that: “I was named for a criminal. Mom says that’s a dramatic way of looking at things, but sometimes the truth is dramatic.” Chapter titles also draw in readers and carry the story along, such as “Mom’s Rules for Life in New York City” or the “Things” chapters, including “Things You Don’t Forget”, “Things You Push Away”, and “Things You Realize. ” Stead also subtly incorporates aspects of the 1970s, such as aspects of the popular TV game show or that Miranda’s mother won’t buy grapes “because Mom doesn’t like the way grape farmers are treated in California.”

While the time travel aspect of the plot could be confusing to some readers, most will be riveted as they try to make sense of how all the pieces to the puzzle fit together—who is “the laughing man” who shakes his fist at the sky, kicks his legs toward the street, and sleeps under the mailbox? Why did the strange boy punch Miranda’s best friend Sal on their way home from school? When and where will Miranda receive another strange note that somehow proves that an event will eventually happen? Readers will be eager to discover how all of the events and characters become intertwined at the end of the story. Sure to become a classic, booklovers will want to revisit Stead’s tale again and again.


4. AWARDS WON AND REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

• School Library Journal (starred review): This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will appeal to several types of readers.
  
  
• Kirkus Reviews (starred review): "[T]een readers will circle back to the beginning and say, ‘Wow...cool.’”
  
  
• Booklist (starred review): "[Q]uite wonderful … [j]ust as Miranda rereads L’Engle, children will return to this."
  
  
• Horn Book (starred review): "Closing revelations are startling and satisfying, but quietly made."
  
  
• The New York Times Book Review: "Every word, every sentence, has meaning and substance ... [in this] smart and mesmerizing book."
  
  
• 2010 Newbery Medal Winner
  
  

5. CONNECTIONS

• Recommended for children ages 10 and up. Adults will love it too!
  
  
• To learn more about author Rebecca Stead, visit her Web site at: http://www.rebeccasteadbooks.com/
  
  
• To listen to an audio interview of Rebecca Stead discussing WHEN YOU REACH ME, visit: http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/whenyoureachme/interview.html
  
  
• Children may also enjoy reading Rebecca Stead’s other fiction book:
  -Stead, Rebecca. FIRST LIGHT. 2007. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. ISBN: 9780375840173.
  
  
• Children may also enjoy reading A WRINKLE IN TIME, which is mentioned in the book:
  -L’Engle, Madeleine. A WRINKLE IN TIME. 2007. New York: Square Fish. ISBN: 9780312367541. (Published in 1962 and winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal)