G6: When You Reach Me

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Stead, Rebecca. 2009. WHEN YOU REACH ME. New York: Wendy Lamb Books (Random House). ISBN: 978-0-385-73742-5.

This fantasy novel about time travel has a gritty, realistic edge to it. Narrated by Miranda, an 11-year-old sixth grader, and set in New York City in 1979, it includes a colorful cast of characters and large and small plot lines. There’s the impending appearance of Miranda’s mother on the TV game show, The $20,000 Pyramid. There’s the relationship between her mother and Richard, and her mother’s dead-end paralegal job. There’s Miranda’s relationship with Sal, a boy in her grade who lives in her building and whom she has known since she first moved into the building when she was young. There’s the mysterious Marcus who appears one day to change her life, and the scary laughing man who lives on the street. There’s the gang of neighborhood toughs who seem to do little more than push each other around and make cat-calls to those weaker than they, And, true to form in a story about growing up, there are friendships made and broken, school-centered shenanigans, and life through the eyes and voice of a young girl.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Upper elementary and middle school readers will have little difficulty related to the character of Miranda. This is her novel, and she shows herself in a number of different guises. She’s the lonely latchkey child who wonders what that word would be in German and asks her mother’s boyfriend. She hates where she believes her name originated. (It doesn’t seem to be from Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST.) She’s the sniping sixth grader who makes fun of a girl in her class who always waits too long to go to the bathroom, while also making and breaking alliances with her peers. She’s positive toward those she likes and positively nasty when speaking about those she doesn’t. She’s the daughter who wants the best for her mother but who has little difficulty commenting negatively on the outfits her mother wears to work or on her mother’s job. She’s the observer who sees the people in her neighborhood and school and is not ashamed to give them nicknames or say something about them that may or may not be charitable. In short, she combines mature and immature qualities but never hesitates to speak out.

Early in this story, Stead builds mystery when Miranda begins receiving notes. The first asks her to write a letter to the anonymous note writer after she or he tells her that her friend’s life will be saved. Miranda, “freaked” after the note, hears a “tiny bell” in her head that she disregards at first. (61) At this point, readers might ask if this story she tell is the letter she’s asked to write. (It turns out later at the climax that it isn’t, but I have to say I still believe it.) This idea seems more legitimate when she receives the second note describing the letter more closely: “Your letter must tell a story—a true story” (67). The writer asks her to stay quiet about the notes, which completely unsettles. Now, she is alone, having to write a letter to a person she has addressed so far as “You.” As other clues arrive, Miranda always feels she is missing something, and, as it turns out, she does.

Woven into and around these notes are the other plot lines, many of which seem to fuse together at the end of the book. Her lifelong friend, Sal, has been punched for no reason by Marcus. Sal then avoids her even though they have grown up together. As a result, her days after school are spent alone. Later, she befriends the boy who punched him who introduces the idea of time travel. She also gets close to Annemarie, and the two of them, along with Colin, work at a sandwich shop near school. Julia, once friends with Annemarie, has turned into Miranda’s antagonist, even though she isn’t a few chapters later. (If readers are having difficulty keep all of this straight, they are not alone: a lot of things happen in this novel.)

Many of the chapters begins with the word “things”: “Things You Give Away,” “Things You Line Up,” “White Things,” “Things You Keep Secret,” et al. The ones that do not begin with “Things” seem to have more descriptive names, such as “The First Note,” “Christmas Vacation” or “The $20,000 Pyramid.” The “Things” chapters seem to reflect all of the activity that Miranda has going on in her mind and even what she sees or does not see around her, while the others seem to be straighter descriptions of events in her life. By not giving the “Things” chapters proper nouns as names, Stead is almost telling readers that they are part of the larger mystery or at least the collection of thoughts of a young girl learning about life.

This novel demands a lot of attention on the part of readers, but the seemingly divergent plot lines come together in the chapters during and after the one entitled, “The Last Note” on page 157. In this chapter, Stead, perhaps sensing confusion on the part of the readers, numbers the major points of the action 1-47. Sal is saved by the laughing man, who is really Marcus who has time-traveled to be the hero. The laughing man dies, but Marcus lives. Miranda says she understands at that moment, but her true understanding comes later, once her mother has won The $20,000 Pyramid. At this point, appropriately occurring during the “speed” round, Miranda loses the “veil” that has blinded her throughout the book, especially in her relationships with Sal, Annemarie, Julia and Marcus. She asserts that “Time travel is possible” and that “None of it makes sense,” but that “All of it is true” (188-9). As someone stuck in reading and rereading A WRINKLE IN TIME, Miranda should have picked up on the notion of time travel earlier, but she needed the veil lifted, a sign of her metaphorical maturity.

With all of its intertwined plot lines, this novel was difficult on the first reading, but began to make more sense on the second. Readers will enjoy Miranda’s view of the world, with its alternating and constant emotions. They will recognize their own need to look carefully at the world around them and listen to what others are actually saying, rather than what they might want to hear. Miranda does this in the end. Her relationships with her friends improve, and she makes it so that her mother can pursue a career she left long ago. Miranda has had a difficult year, but she has pulled through it triumphantly.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
--(Stead) skillfully weaves written notes into each scene and repeats clues when necessary. The climax is full of drama and suspense. This story about the intricacies of friendship will be a hit with students. (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, December 2009)
--This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will appeal to several types of readers. (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, July 2009)
--Stead accomplishes this by making every detail count, including Miranda's name, her hobby of knot tying and her favorite book, Madeleine L'Engle's A WRINKLE IN TIME. It's easy to imagine readers studying Miranda's story as many times as she's read L'Engle's, and spending hours pondering the provocative questions it raises. (PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY, June 2009)
--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, June 2009)

CONNECTIONS
--Newbery Medal Winner, 2010
--With its focus on maturing young people and their relationship among themselves and with the adults in their lives, this novel would be an excellent addition to a 6th grade English/Language Arts curriculum class. It could be read out loud or as a whole class. Discussions and activities could center on student experiences of growing up.

--Another book by Rebecca Stead:
FIRST LIGHT. 2008. ISBN: 978-0440422228. (Reprint)

--Other books worth reading on Manhattan, time travel or maturing (suggested by reviewers):
Fitzhugh, Louise. 2001. HARRIET THE SPY. ISBN: 978-0440416791. (Reprint)
Kelly, Jacqueline. 2009. THE EVOLUTION OF CALPURNIA TATE. ISBN: 978-0805088410. (Newbery Honor Book)
Konigsburg, E.L. 2007. FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER. ISBN: 978-1416949756. (Reprint, Newbery Award Winner, 1967.)
L’Engle, Madeiline. 2007. A WRINKLE IN TIME. ISBN: 978-0312367541. (Reprint, Newbery Award Winner, 1963.)