User:Derild4921/When you Reach Me

Concept and development

Rebecca Stead came up with the idea for When You Reach Me when she read an article in The New York Times about a person in Denver who could not remember who he was or why he was there. Many people tried to find ways for him to remember anything at all. Under hypnosis it was found that he had two daughters killed in a car crash and a wife named Penny. However, when Penny was found, they realized she wasn't his wife, only his finance and they had no children. Upon reading this, Stead began to wonder if "this guy knows something that we don’t. Or maybe this guy came from some time or place where this had actually come to pass. Maybe that’s why he’s here. What was the journey? And why did he end up with his brain kind of wiped clean?" This became the "nugget" of her story which she tied into here life on New York’s Upper West Side.

With the basic idea down, Stead began researching the science behind time travel and making sure her ideas would also work out logically. She says that this caused "a complete meltdown". To help her, Stead called her dad who enjoyed mathematics and puzzles. As she talked to her dad about time travel, she "just kept falling into the same hole with the logic, and he really helped me straighten it out".

A Wrinkle in Time

Throughout the story, the main character Miranda is often seen reading A Wrinkle in Time. Stead says that she was also a huge fan of the book and would continuously read and reread the book. She recalls that Madeleine L’Engle was the only author she had ever met in her childhood. However, Stead only meant to have A Wrinkle in Time in there as a small detail describing it as a "talisman" for Miranda though she knew this "would eventually jettison, because you can't just toss A Wrinkle in Time in there casually". The more she wrote, the more she wanted for the book to make a deeper meaning and talked the her editor and others helping her and together they deceided for the book to have a deeper meaning. Rereading the book multiple times, Stead then tried "to see it as different characters in my own story might" which created more and more connections.

References

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/childrens-books/rebecca-stead/when-you-reach-me/

July 14, 2009

Awards and honors Amazon's Best Books of the Year: 2009 (#21)

Amazon's Best Books of the Month: July 2009

School Library Journal Best Book of the Year (2009)

Newbery Medal (2010)

ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2010)

Andre Norton Award Finalist (2009)

ALA Notable Children's Book (2010)

Indies Choice Book Award (Middle Readers, 2010)

Juvenile Fiction: When You Reach Me, Newbery Medal Winner Mar 10th, 2010 by Aaron Mead.

http://www.childrensbooksandreviews.com/juvenile-fiction-when-you-reach-me-newbery-medal-winner/

Miranda—the protagonist of the 2010 Newbery Medal-winning juvenile fiction book When You Reach Me—is a twelve-year-old latchkey kid living with her single mom in New York City in the 1970s. She’s smart, she’s funny, and she reads only one book: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. Her mother—a would-be lawyer with a keen sense of justice—was forced to drop out of law school when she had Miranda. Now she works unhappily as a paralegal and dreams of winning the game show The $20,000 Pyramid so she can quit her job.

Miranda has lost her best friend, Sal, who lives in her apartment building. One day, while the two of them were walking home from school, a neighborhood kid named Marcus punched Sal, and from that day on Sal just seemed to drift away: he no longer waits to walk with Miranda, and he refuses even to look at her when they bump into each other. In the confusing void left by Sal, Miranda strikes up new friendships with Annemarie—who was recently ditched by her sometimes-snotty best friend Julia—and Colin, “this short kid who seemed to end up in my class every year” (p. 54). The three of them get lunchtime jobs together at the local sandwich shop, Jimmy’s, and bond over cheese sandwiches with smelly pickles.

One day Miranda finds her apartment mysteriously unlocked after school, and the spare key missing from its hiding spot, unnerving both her and her mother. Shortly thereafter Miranda receives the following mysterious note:

“This is hard. Harder than I expected, even with your help. But I have been practicing, and my preparations go well. I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own. I ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter. Second, please remember to mention the location of your house key. The trip is a difficult one. I will not be myself when I reach you” (p. 60).

Miranda continues to receive notes like this—four in all—each as eerie and enigmatic as the first. The notes set her a mystery to unravel: Who is sending the notes? What kind of trip is the sender planning to take? Which of Miranda’s friends will be saved? And from what? And what’s with that crazy homeless guy on the corner that sleeps with his head under the mailbox? These questions, along with the rift between Miranda and Sal, drive the story forward.

Subjective Appeal: Compelling Mystery

Many things make this juvenile fiction book appealing. The first, of course, is the mystery: the reader is as intent on solving it as Miranda is. Stead gives the mystery depth beyond the mere content of the notes by lacing the book with the science fiction theme of time travel. The most obvious way this theme shows up is in conversations Miranda has with certain friends—in particular Marcus, a math and physics prodigy who thinks time travel is theoretically possible. However, time travel is also woven into the children’s book via Miranda’s attachment to L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, a book in which the protagonist, Meg, travels through time to save her family members. (Incidentally, Stead says in the acknowledgements that L’Engle’s books captivated her as a child.)

Despite the compelling mystery, though, When You Reach Me is most deeply about friendship. Specifically, the novel addresses the question of how to hold on to old friendships without stifling them, and it insightfully brings out the stabilizing effect that new friendships can have in the effort to preserve or reclaim old ones. Though I refrain from specifics here in order not to spoil the plot, the novel’s narrative reflections on friendship are extremely thoughtful and resonant. This theme of friendship will speak deeply to tweens navigating the frequently tumultuous social world of middle school.

This juvenile fiction book is also just very clever. For example, as I already noted, Miranda’s mother wants to win on The $20,000 Pyramid. The final part of the game show is called the “Winner’s Circle”, in which a set of objects is described to the contestant and she is required to say what category the objects belong to. For example, if the objects were “a tube of toothpaste, someone’s hand” the contestant would say “things you squeeze” (p. 39). Stead cleverly titles most of the chapters in the book with categories like that, such as “Things You Keep in a Box,” “Things That Go Missing,” and “Things You Hide.” And sure enough, Stead puts objects in each chapter that fit into these titular categories. After a while, it became a fun extra game to find what the “things that smell” or “things that kick” were in the chapter I was reading!

Developmental Value: Friendship and Redemption

In addition to these factors that give When You Reach Me subjective appeal, this juvenile fiction book is developmentally valuable for young readers. In particular, the book communicates hopeful positive messages about some of life’s most important themes. Indeed, it seems to be part of Stead’s explicit purpose to lift, for a moment, the “veil” that generally hides from us “the world as it really is,” in all its “beauty, and cruelty, and sadness, and love” (p. 71). In other words, part of Stead’s aim is to inspire truthful but hopeful reflection on some of the things that matter most in life.

Stead’s elevation of the value of friendship is perhaps the most important and striking example of what makes this book good for tweens. Her focus on the deep importance of friendship is a welcome counter-weight to the catty, superficial social culture typical of middle school.

The possibility of redemption is another developmentally valuable theme that Stead explores in her children’s book. For example, the book builds toward second chances for Miranda’s mother—both vocationally, and relationally. Similarly, Miranda has a redemptive conversion in the way she views and treats her classmates Julia and Alice Evans. Whereas before she viewed Julia simply as a competitor for Annemarie’s affection, and Alice as the weird kid who waited too long to go to the bathroom, toward the end of the book Miranda’s veil is suddenly removed, revealing Julia as Annemarie’s faithful friend, and Alice as an insecure outsider. This insight gives Miranda new compassion and kindness toward both of them.

In sum, When You Reach Me is a fantastic book for children aged nine years and up. Not only does it engage interesting themes bundled into a compelling mystery, but it elevates friendship and redemption, and thereby encourages the right sort of values in tweens. I encourage you to find this work of juvenile fiction in your local library, or to support our work by purchasing it through the links in this post, or those in the Children’s Books and Reviews Online Bookstore. And why not pick up L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time while you’re at it?

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/protecting_your_family/book-reviews/w/when-you-reach-me.aspx

When You Reach Me A book review for parents

This futuristic, coming-of-age book by Rebecca Stead is published by Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books (a division of Random House, Inc.), and is written for kids ages 9 to 14 years old. The age range reflects readability and not necessarily content appropriateness.

Plot Summary

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Miranda, a sixth-grader in the late 1970s, lives with her mother in a run-down New York apartment. Mom's boyfriend, Richard, spends much of his time with them. A latch-key kid, Miranda always walks home from school cautiously, particularly trying to avoid an insane old vagrant who hangs out near her building. Because of his crazy cackling, she and Mom refer to him as the laughing man.

When Miranda's best buddy, Sal, gets punched by another boy for no apparent reason, Sal abruptly ends his friendship with Miranda. Then Miranda starts getting strange notes. The anonymous writer says he's coming to save her friend's life and his own, and he needs Miranda to write a letter for him. The notes frighten Miranda, partly because they correctly predict future events, such as the date her mom appears as a contestant on "$20,000 Pyramid."

Miranda develops new friendships with classmates Annemarie (who has also "broken up" with her best friend, Julia) and Colin. Later, she meets Marcus, the boy who punched Sal. Seeing a copy of A Wrinkle in Time that Miranda always carries, Marcus provides thought-provoking commentary on the book. As they discuss the plausibility of time travel, Miranda realizes Marcus isn't mean, but he is extremely intelligent.

On her way home one day, Miranda sees Sal running from Marcus. Sal runs into traffic and is nearly hit. The laughing man kicks Sal out of the way and dies in his place. She finally realizes the laughing man, who is actually Marcus as an old man, sent her the notes. He has come back from the future to save Sal's life. Miranda's job is to write a letter to present-day Marcus, explaining the events that will transpire and reminding him to return to the past when he discovers how to travel through time.

Christian Beliefs

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The driver who almost hits Sal repeatedly cries, "Thank God," when he realizes the boy is fine.

Authority Roles

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Mom, who was unable to finish her law degree because she became pregnant with Miranda, is a secretary for a law office. The more she hates her job, the more she steals office supplies. A concerned parent and compassionate individual, Mom volunteers with pregnant, incarcerated women, and her law firm, for which Richard also works, often provides free legal aid to the poor. Richard, a lawyer, is a loving companion for Mom and father figure for Miranda. Miranda doesn't understand why her mother won't let him have a key to their apartment. Miranda never knew her own father, and she says you can't really miss something you never had. She doesn't hold any grudges against her father, though she blames him for her flat brown hair. Jimmy, the temperamental owner of a restaurant near their school, pays Colin, Annemarie and Miranda in sandwiches to work at his shop. They finally quit when he makes racially bigoted comments about Julia, who is black.

Other Belief Systems

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Mom's appearance on "$20,000 Pyramid" falls on the same day as Richard's birthday, and Mom thinks that may be a good omen. In a school assembly, Miranda tries to use her brain waves to make Sal turn around and look at her. She ponders the world millions of years ago and the evolution of it since then, including how animals became people. Mom says people walk around with invisible veils over their faces, and that at certain critical moments, the veils are lifted, and everything becomes clear. She says it isn't due to magic or God or angels, but it's because people get distracted by little things and ignore the big ones. Miranda and Marcus discuss Einstein's theory of relativity in relation to time travel and events that take place in A Wrinkle in Time. By the end of the book, Marcus proves that time travel is a possibility and that the end of something can come before its beginning (time-wise).

Profanity/Graphic Violence

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Miranda says her mother calls something "a whole different bucket of poop," but that Mom doesn't use the word "poop." H--- and darn appear a few times. The Lord's name is taken in vain a few times, too. Mom drops something in the kitchen, and Miranda hears a bunch of cursing, though no actual swear words appear in the text.

Kissing/Sex/Homosexuality

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Mom fears change, so she refuses to give Richard a key to her apartment. She's also nervous about letting him move in or accepting his offer of marriage. After her win on "$20,000 Pyramid," she gives him a key. The text also implies that he stays the night. Miranda mentions that she has kissed Colin a few times and that another boy kissed Annemarie.

Awards

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Newbery Award, 2010; The New York Times Notable Book, 2009; Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Books, 2009; Publisher's Weekly Best Children's Book of the Year, 2009; and others

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/books/19newbery.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=rebecca%20stead&st=cse

January 19, 2010 A Very New York Novel Wins Newbery Medal By MOTOKO RICH

With its complex structure, evocation of time travel and resonant 1970s New York setting, “When You Reach Me,” a novel of mystery and friendship, won the John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature on Monday.

Librarians and bloggers who write about books for young people had widely tipped the book, by Rebecca Stead, as a favorite before Monday’s announcement. The novel, which takes place in 1979 on the Upper West Side, tells the story of Miranda, a sixth grader whose best friend, Sal, stops talking to her. Meanwhile an anonymous writer begins sending her notes that suggest she needs to figure out how to prevent a future tragedy.

The award, considered the most prestigious honor in children’s literature, was conferred by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, at the group’s midwinter conference in Boston.

Though there has sometimes been a disconnect between Newbery judges and the youthful reading public, that’s not the case this year: “When You Reach Me” has spent eight weeks on The New York Times best-seller list for children’s chapter books.

“We are so very excited about this book because it is exceptionally conceived, finely crafted and highly original,” said Katie O’Dell, chairwoman of the Newbery committee and manager of school-age services at the Multnomah County Library in Portland, Ore. “Every scene, every nuance, every word is vital both to character development and the progression of the mystery that really is going to engage readers and satisfy them.”

The association also awarded the Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children to “The Lion & the Mouse” by Jerry Pinkney.

Mr. Pinkney’s book is a nearly wordless adaptation of Aesop’s fable about how the king of the animal kingdom is helped by one of its smallest creatures. Rendered in watercolor and pencil, the book sets the story in the Serengeti plain of Africa.

“You turn the page, and you’re caught up in the drama of what’s happening in a really thoughtful, brilliant way,” said Rita Auerbach, chairwoman of the Caldecott committee and a retired school librarian who described Mr. Pinkney’s command of watercolors as “unparalleled.”

Mr. Pinkney — who had been named as a Caldecott honoree, the runner-up prize, five times before winning this year’s medal — was also a favorite for the award.

This year, for the first time, the Young Adult Library Services Association, also a division of the American Library Association, awarded a prize for a nonfiction work, to “Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith” by Deborah Heiligman.

Walter Dean Myers was named the first-time winner of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Speaking by telephone from her home on the Upper West Side, where she also grew up, Ms. Stead, the Newbery winner, said she loved writing for children and for middle school readers in particular. “I think they are open in a way that older people are not,” she said. “And so it gives me this feeling of freedom and it really sort of helps me on a creative level to think and to imagine a child audience.”

Ms. Stead, 42, who had a prior career as a public defender and has written one other novel for young readers, said she wanted to set “When You Reach Me” in the location and time of her own childhood in New York. The apartment in the book, she said, is modeled on her mother’s apartment, and Miranda’s school is very similar to Public School 75 on West End Avenue and 96th Street, which the author attended as a child.

Another seed of the novel came from a newspaper article about a man who had lost his memory and then, while hypnotized, told the police his wife and two daughters had been in a car accident. But when the police circulated his picture, a woman came forward and said she was his fiancée, that they had no children, and that there had been no car accident.

“Sometimes when you’re in an open frame of mind, a story like that can suggest something completely different and impossible,” added Ms. Stead, who imagined a story about someone who might be able to travel through time to save a life. “I found it very moving that you could have a character with a secret mission to save someone. I became intrigued by the idea of whether a loop like that was possible, and I became very interested in the idea of trying to create a puzzle.”

Mr. Pinkney, 70, said in a telephone interview from his home in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., that he had illustrated close to 100 books, seven of which he also wrote. He has consistently returned to old fables, but “The Lion & the Mouse” is the first time he has produced a book with no written narrative. (There are a few animal sounds.)

Mr. Pinkney conducted extensive research on the Serengeti so that he could draw authentic pictures. “Even the butterflies and other creatures are all from the Serengeti,” he said.

“There’s nothing like doing work where in fact you influence, you may inspire, you might educate, children,” Mr. Pinkney said. “In order to exercise your imagination there’s no better place but working for children because they have incredible imaginations.”