When You Reach Me Analysis

Uncertainty, confusion, heartbreak. In the meaningful Newberry Award winning novel, When you Reach Me, Rebecca Stead gives the reader excitement with the mystery and sadness of friendships to narrate a story with meaning and significance. After receiving an anonymous letter from someone who can somehow tell the future, twelve-year-old Miranda must figure out the person who knows everything about her and write a letter back to them. This novel is immensely intriguing and will wrap up any reader for sure.
Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know exactly where and where not to go by the sixth grade. They know where to go, the grocery store, and where not to go, towards the crazy guy on the corner. But things start to unravel. When Sal and Miranda are walking home from school one day, the neighborhood bully, Marcus, punches Sal for no reason and acts as if it didn’t even happen the next day. Sal suddenly stops walking home and hanging out with Miranda. She is then left clueless of why her lifelong best friend had “started walking home with [her] that [next]day” and many days after that. While all this is happening, Miranda strangely finds an anonymous note in her book saying that the author of the note will save her friend’s life, she needs to write a note back to the writer, and that she must give the location of her house key. Miranda is left puzzled and a little worried that whoever this is knows who she is. At school, Miranda and her best friends start jobs at the sandwich place across the street. Again, a mysterious letter shows up halfway down a bag saying, “Your letter must tell a story-a true story.” A story that has not happened yet …show more content…
This book is good for all ages, though meant for children, as it is short but has lots of meaning to it. With friendships ending and beginning and mysteries being solved and created this story is exceptional and is definitely