Contents
When You Reach Me shows us that you can decide your own identity. This is exactly what Miranda does in Chapter 41. The biggest lesson Miranda learns is that “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” This is especially important when it comes to Julia, Marcus, and the Laughing Man.
Things Miranda Learns
She learns how to be compassionate. She also learns about time. All of this gives Miranda a brand new perspective – or way of seeing the world. By the end of the novel, we see her transformation is complete.
In her attempt to become friends with the girl, Miranda learns that Julia loves science and outer space (hinted at in her explanation of time travel as a diamond ring earlier in the book), and that her family life isn’t as perfect as it might at first seem (her meditating mother is nowhere to be found).
The climax of the novel comes when Sal is saved by the Laughing Man, who becomes a figure of supreme sacrifice. Miranda also has her first revelation in this portion of the novel (a climax in and of itself) when she finally figures out that the Laughing Man was the person sending the notes.
At the conclusion of the book When You Reach Me, Marcus chases Sal with the intention of apologizing for hitting him, but Sal is afraid and runs away into the street without looking. A truck bears down on him, but the laughing man pushes him away in the nick of time, sacrificing his own life in the process.
The Laughing Man is actually Marcus’s future self, who has traveled back in time to save Sal from being run over by a bus. This is Marcus’s way of making amends for punching Sal when Sal walked past him with Miranda one day.
Then there is Marcus, the boy who punched Sal, apparently for no reason. It turns out that he is essentially a absent-minded genius who is usually thinking about physics, but was trying to be a more “normal” boy and expected Sal to hit him back.
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.
Though she may not be the most conservative dresser, Mom is Miranda’s – and the novel’s – moral guide. She aspires to be a public defense lawyer (3.25), she runs a parenting group for women in prison (26.5-9), and she urges Miranda to treat people like the Laughing Man humanely (5.3).
As the novel closes, Miranda gives her mom applications to law school (her plan for the money won on the game show) and writes the letter to the Laughing Man – which she will deliver to Marcus, who is (drumroll please) the magic thread.
Miranda’s mom calls him “Mr. Perfect because of how he looks and how he knows everything,” but every time her mother says this, “Richard taps his right knee. He does that because his right leg is shorter than his left one” (2.6). Still, we think he’s pretty close to perfect for Miranda and her mom.
Sal gets punched by a new kid for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key that Miranda’s mom keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen. And then Miranda finds a mysterious note scrawled on a tiny slip of paper: I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.
By “Swiss Miss,” he’s talking about Julia. He’s using Miranda’s name for Julia (because Julia always talks about Switzerland) as a racist term (because Swiss Miss is also brown hot chocolate and Julia has brown skin). … Annemarie asks Miranda if she’s the one who started calling Julia racist names.
Jimmy is always throwing Julia out of the store, accusing her of theft, or using Miranda’s nickname for her, “Swiss Miss.” Jimmy uses the phrase not as a reference to Julia’s many trips to Switzerland, but as a derogatory way to describe her dark skin.
What is the problem in when you reach me? The conflict is Miranda is trying to find out who is giving her the notes and why did Marcus punch Sal. The story is set a long time ago, in 1719. Inciting event:The inciting event is when the door is left unlocked, the key goes missing, and Miranda receives her first note.
Louisa is Sal’s mother and lives in the same apartment building as Miranda and her mother.
The Third Note
It’s the first day of December and really cold. Miranda puts on her winter coat. Miranda’s mom is still in bed, so she grabs some money out of her mom’s pocket. On her walk to school she finds something in her pocket: the third note.
Amber Entertainment wins film rights to ‘When You Reach Me’ Newberry Medal-winning children’s book. Amber Entertainment has won a bidding war for feature rights to Rebecca Stead’s science fiction novel “When You Reach Me.” Book was recently awarded the Newbery Medal for children’s literature.
Now, back to the Laughing Man. He says things in a chant-like way: “bookbag, pocketshoe” (5.15). Miranda asks Richard what a pocket shoe is.
Miranda was carrying her “Mysteries of Science” poster, all about theories of yawning. She thinks that it’s just nature’s “semipolite way of telling someone that they’re boring everyone to death” (7.4).
The Laughing Man is on the corner across the street. Then things get weird. Miranda sees something flicker next to the Laughing Man, “like an old movie” just for a few seconds (45.14). It looks like a naked man holding his head.
Marcus then figures out that it was Miranda holding the poster with the yawns. He starts to tell her about the “Mysteries of Science” and yawns, but there are footsteps in the hall. Mom shows up and intercepts the police at the door to the dentist’s office.
Miranda guesses she doesn’t want a dad because she has never had one before, and “A person can’t miss something she never had” (9.6). The three continue their practice. Miranda tells her mom she thinks she’ll win.
For most of Miranda’s life, Sal has been her best friend. However, he distances himself from her. Later he reveals that he had realized that they depended too much on each other and had no other friends. So he cut off ties with her in order to make friends with other boys his age.
A flu epidemic hits the town, and Miranda is the only one unaffected in her family. She cross-country skis to the hospital, hoping to find a family friend and doctor named Peter. Instead, the two nurses on duty tell her that Peter died of the flu over the weekend.
-The antagonist is the moon. The moon is evil because he got hit by an asteroid and he is too close to the Earth.
Back at the apartment, Richard and Mom dance to a record and they celebrate Richard’s birthday. Miranda also gives her mother an envelope. It’s a packet full of law school applications. This was her secret plan, and Richard’s, all along.
Miranda notices that he always utters the words “book bag pocket shoe.” She later realizes the phrase refers to the order and place he will send Miranda notes—her library book, a bread bag, her coat pocket, and Richard’s shoe. The first three notes instruct Miranda to write a letter describing the future events.
So Mom got the postcard today. It says Congratulations in big curly letters, and at the very top is the address of Studio TV-15 on West 58th Street. After three years of trying, she has actually made it. She’s going to be a contestant on The $20,000 Pyramid, which is hosted by Dick Clark.
Related Searches
when you reach me comprehension questions
when you reach me chapter questions
when you reach me questions and answers
when you reach me pdf
when you reach me critical thinking questions
is when you reach me a movie
when you reach me summary
themes in when you reach me