When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Stead, R. (2009). When you reach me. New York, NY: Wendy Lamb Books

Summary: When you Reach Me is set in New York City where twelve year old Miranda and her mother live in a small, shabby apartment and dream of winning $20,000 Pyramid, the celebrity partner game in which Miranda's mother was recently selected to be a contestant. Miranda's life long best friend Sal, a 12 year old boy who lives in Miranda's building, suddenly stops talking to Miranda after getting punched by another boy on the street on their walk home from school. Throughout the novel Miranda is writing and receiving mysterious letters which leave the reader wondering who she is writing to and who has sent her these letters from the future. The letters warn Miranda that Sal's life is in danger. Because Sal's ended his lifelong friendship, Miranda is forced to choose a new friend, Annemarie, a classmate who suffers quietly from a disease that Miranda does not know about or understand. Annemarie, Miranda, and Colin, a boy in Miranda's class who makes her stomach flip flop, get jobs during lunchtime at a pizza parlor. Julia, a science fiction lover and time travel expert, is Annemarie's old best friend and Miranda's rival. Miranda finds the boy who punched Sal and seemingly ended Miranda's oldest friendship, but Marcus, like other characters in this novel, is not at all like Miranda expected. Poor and intelligent, Marcus helps Miranda understand the ins and outs of time travel. The book takes twists and turns and leaves the reader wondering about the logistics of time travel and what a person will do to save someone's life. Clues about the ending and what will happen abound but readers are left with the desire to immediately reread the book to understand the details. Miranda learns that throughout the book that things are not as they seem and people are easy to misjudge.

Grade levels: 5-8. The main character is twelve years old and her experiences are easy to relate to for children in grades five through eight. As children mature at different ages there are fifth graders who can relate as well as eighth graders. I personally was twelve when I started eighth grade and I would have loved this book. The reading level certainly could be appropriate for fourth graders but the maturity of the content would be over their heads.

Classroom Use
Before Reading Activities:

• - Journal writing and discussion about friendship, judging people, religious and racial prejudice, dealing with epilepsy and illness as a child, bullying, misjudging people, and popularity
• - Exploration and discussion about time travel
• - Reading a Wrinkle in Time prior to reading this novel

During Reading:

• - Strategy practice with making connections to experiences children have in their lives dealing with bullying, making friends, feeling lonely, having a single mom, liking a boy or girl for the first time, popularity
• - Strategy practice with making predictions using clues in the text. This novel is rich with foreshadowing.
• - Analyzing literary techniques: foreshadowing, characterization, plot structure of non-linear plots

After Reading and Technology connections:

• - Use flabberize to create a conversation between Miranda and Julia ten years later when the girls are in their early 20's.
• - Use glogster to create an interesting book report about the novel.
• - Use Edmodo or Todaysmeet to have an online discussion with classmates who have read the same book.

Reader’s Response
I read this book first because I wanted to get this book "out of the way" because "science fiction" turned me off. When I think about science fiction things like vampires, horror, aliens, human eating plants, and zombies come to mind. When I looked back at many other books that I've enjoyed recently I've realized that many of them could be labeled science fiction: The Hunger Games Triology, Ender's Game, and Alas Babylon. This book has helped me change my perception and accept that science fiction is something that I not only tolerate but seriously enjoy reading.

While reading this book I was brought back to the thoughts and emotions I experienced as a child. "Ever since our foreheads had touched it had made me feel strange. But good strange, not creepy strange" (74.) This reminded me of the first time I liked a boy in elementary school. I love how Miranda's description lacks the experience of knowing what the feeling is.

Overall I felt that this was a wonderful book. It was engaging and there were many nuances and aspects of the plot to hold my interest and keep me wondering what would happen next. I liked the surprising character twists. For example, when Annemarie has her seizure and Julia coaches Miranda in how to handle it, Julia's character is finally seen as heroic and Miranda is finally able to see another side of Julia. I would definitely recommend this book to middle school students.