Stead (2009) writes a science fiction and a mystery novel When you Reach Me. Stead tells us a story of a sixth grader, Miranda, who lived with her paralegal single mother in New York City in 1979. Miranda and her mother’s boyfriend, Richard, prepared her mother for a game show $20,000 Pyramid. Mirada was a Latchkey kid and she was walking home from school with her best friend Sal, who start ignoring her with no good reason after he was punched by Marcus. This reaction pushed Miranda to make new friends which made her more active in school. There was a homeless man on the corner with his head below the mail box who utters the words “book, bag, pocket, shoe”. After that, Miranda starts receiving mysterious notes asking her to record future events
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Stead shows us the independence of children in past time. In this novel, Miranda and her friends walk together in the city without their parents or any adults (page 124). They know where to go and how to avoid trouble (page 196). Moreover, they work at Jimmy’s store at lunch (page 55). According to my knowledge, I agree with her in this point due to a lot of reasons. The independence of children makes them more responsible. Nowadays, kids are less dependent than the kids in past. They are growing up with their parents who are watching and preventing them from dangers. In the past, children are more independent. They played together outside, visited each other and went to and from school alone. I think this made them more responsible and independent. Even in the past in my country, children were very independent. They walked to school alone and they did their homework alone because their parents were uneducated. This makes them acquire new experiences and defend themselves. I know the independence of children now is a little bit dangerous due to the crime rates against kids, but parents must protect them in normal ways and give them a space of freedom like the ability to choose their friends. They will learn a lot from this
Stead shows us the independence of children in past time. In this novel, Miranda and her friends walk together in the city without their parents or any adults (page 124). They know where to go and how to avoid trouble (page 196). Moreover, they work at Jimmy’s store at lunch (page 55). According to my knowledge, I agree with her in this point due to a lot of reasons. The independence of children makes them more responsible. Nowadays, kids are less dependent than the kids in past. They are growing up with their parents who are watching and preventing them from dangers. In the past, children are more independent. They played together outside, visited each other and went to and from school alone. I think this made them more responsible and independent. Even in the past in my country, children were very independent. They walked to school alone and they did their homework alone because their parents were uneducated. This makes them acquire new experiences and defend themselves. I know the independence of children now is a little bit dangerous due to the crime rates against kids, but parents must protect them in normal ways and give them a space of freedom like the ability to choose their friends. They will learn a lot from this