Book Review: When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead, published July 14, 2009. Winner of the Newbery Medal, 2010. Lexile 750, grades 3-7 or ages 10-12. Please note: this book is already in the Pageturner library, but only for one class. It will require additional student requests for further purchases.
This “sci-fi light” novel is written in the immersive point of view--meaning, it’s written completely in first person narrative with no hint of the author’s own perspective or voice. Chapter 1 takes place three weeks before April 27, 1979, in New York City, where Dick Clark's hit game show “The $20,000 Pyramid” is being filmed.
12-year old Miranda Sinclair has no memory of the father who'd allegedly given her the book A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.* Her copy is lovingly timeworn, but she rereads it so often she's memorized many of the parts she loves best. In this, her beloved favorite novel, a high school character named Meg Murry travels through space and time with her younger brother and a friend to rescue their dad, an important scientist, from a cosmic evil on the other side of the universe. Her book has given Miranda a high sense of justice and strong family values-- while also offering an escape from her real life in a rundown neighborhood in NYC. Her mom, a paralegal, also instills Miranda with a keen sense of justice, telling her she’s named after the 1966 Supreme Court Miranda decision that required police inform arrestees of their rights under law. (At least, that’s how Miranda rights functioned for 56 years, before the Supreme Court eviscerated them in a ruling approved by the right wing majority and written by extremist Justice Alito in 2022.**)
12-year old Miranda Sinclair has no memory of the father who'd allegedly given her the book A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.* Her copy is lovingly timeworn, but she rereads it so often she's memorized many of the parts she loves best. In this, her beloved favorite novel, a high school character named Meg Murry travels through space and time with her younger brother and a friend to rescue their dad, an important scientist, from a cosmic evil on the other side of the universe. Her book has given Miranda a high sense of justice and strong family values-- while also offering an escape from her real life in a rundown neighborhood in NYC. Her mom, a paralegal, also instills Miranda with a keen sense of justice, telling her she’s named after the 1966 Supreme Court Miranda decision that required police inform arrestees of their rights under law. (At least, that’s how Miranda rights functioned for 56 years, before the Supreme Court eviscerated them in a ruling approved by the right wing majority and written by extremist Justice Alito in 2022.**)
Miranda and Sal have been best buds for most of their lives. One day an unknown boy walks up to Sal and sucker punches him in the gut, hard, for no apparent reason. Sal drops. This alters Miranda's universe, forever. From that moment forward, Sal never again walks with Miranda to school; they never play together again. She feels she can't even call him on the phone. Instead, it seems he no longer knows she exists.
Then Miranda finds an anonymous note in the apartment she shares with her mom, after noticing their door is unlocked. Her mom would never leave the door unlocked; she’s a paralegal, her boyfriend is the attorney she works for--they are both smart and acutely aware of the need to stay safe. The note asks her to write down everything that happens, no matter how small the detail. Addressing this anonymous person in her mind, Miranda muses, “ ‘If I’m not wrong, this is the beginning of the story you wanted me to tell. And I didn’t know it yet, but it was also the end of my friendship with Sal.’”
Have you ever lost a friend and been too afraid to ask why?
Then Miranda finds an anonymous note in the apartment she shares with her mom, after noticing their door is unlocked. Her mom would never leave the door unlocked; she’s a paralegal, her boyfriend is the attorney she works for--they are both smart and acutely aware of the need to stay safe. The note asks her to write down everything that happens, no matter how small the detail. Addressing this anonymous person in her mind, Miranda muses, “ ‘If I’m not wrong, this is the beginning of the story you wanted me to tell. And I didn’t know it yet, but it was also the end of my friendship with Sal.’”
Have you ever lost a friend and been too afraid to ask why?
Some time later, she watches as this same boy, whom she ‘ll soon learn is named Marcus, approaches Sal again--and she briefly wonders how Sal will respond. She watches Sal drop to his knees, pretending to tie his shoe; to Miranda, he appears to be groveling before Marcus’ violent authority, and she shrivels a little.
Meanwhile, her mom is preparing, with her boyfriend Richard’s help, to be on a TV show, “The $20,000 Pyramid.” He’s quizzing mom with an egg timer. “If Mom wins her first speed round and correctly guesses all the categories in the Winner’s Circle, she’ll win ten thousand dollars. If she wins a second speed round, the Winner’s Circle is worth fifteen thousand dollars. And if she wins a third time, she’ll go for twenty thousand dollars.” This kind of money could get Miranda and her mom out of their current neighborhood.
A homeless man near their building sleeps under a mailbox. He’s strange, always kicking out into the street as though he's having seizures, laughing to himself, calling out to Miranda as though he knows her, shouting out incomprehensible sentences, such as, “Don’t worry, she’s already gone.” Miranda, her mom, and Richard, mom’s steady for two years now, are all concerned about this guy’s apparent interest in her. Miranda calls him “the laughing man” and does what she can to avoid him. Sporadically, she's occasionally seen naked men, too, but only for a moment; she chalks that up as part and parcel of living in this crummy area.
Assigned one day by the school's true principal--its secretary--as a “runner” to convey messages between teachers, Miranda learns there’s a dental clinic (!)*** in the school she hadn't known existed. The dentist informs her he’s sees students whose parents can’t afford dental work for their children who are students there. When she’s assigned to retrieve a student from class for his dental appointment--it’ll be the boy who’d hit Sal, named Marcus, toting a math workbook clearly indicating he’s some sort of genius:
“Marcus’s book was different—thick, with a hard cover and small type. So I guessed that even though it was blue—even farther down the rainbow than yellow—it was at least the equivalent of a red. ‘You like math, huh?’ I said. He looked up, and I got the strong feeling he didn’t know he had ever seen me before, that he didn’t remember punching ... ‘Yeah,’ he said slowly, like I might be stupid or something. ‘I like math.’ And he went back to reading.”
Marcus also sees that Miranda’s carrying her own book, A Wrinkle in Time. He informs her that the three women who direct Meg Murry to time travel had actually lied to her, “…’[T]he garden is where they appear when they get back home at the end of the book. Remember? They land in the broccoli. So if they had gotten home five minutes before they left, like those ladies promised they would, then they would have seen themselves get back. Before they left.’ ” Miranda scoffs:
“…‘[B]ut—the end can’t happen before the middle!’ He smiled. ‘Why can’t it?’ ‘I don’t know—it’s common sense!’ ‘Common sense! Have you read Relativity? You know—by Einstein?’ I glared at him. ‘Einstein says common sense is just habit of thought. It’s how we’re used to thinking about things, but a lot of the time it just gets in the way.’ ‘In the way of what?’ ‘In the way of what’s true. I mean, it used to be common sense that the world was flat and the sun revolved around it. But at some point, someone had to reject that assumption, or at least question it.’ ‘Well, obviously somebody did.’ ‘Well, duh. Copernicus did! Look, all I’m saying is that at the end of the book, they don’t get back five minutes before they left. Or they would have seen themselves get back—before they left.’ ” He leaves Miranda’s head spinning. Turns out, Marcus had written a book report on A Wrinkle in Time--in second grade. Another student, her bullying nemesis, joins in the conversation. Julia, from an obviously wealthy family, wears a ring with diamonds all around; she tries to show how relativity works and time ripples as her finger travels from one diamond to another. Miranda just shrugs, more acutely aware of the diamonds than of the proffered evidence, and asks if they're real. Julia snaps back "They're just diamond chips." Julia, Miranda will learn when they become good friends, would gleefully exchange all her jewelry for HER favorite novel in a first edition--also A Wrinkle in Time!
Miranda receives a second note in a bag of buns she’s counting at the lunch counter where she and two of her schoolmates have sweet-talked the owner into letting them work lunch hours for free sandwiches:
“Your letter must tell a story—a true story. You cannot begin now, as most of it has not yet taken place. And even afterward, there is no hurry. But do not wait so long that your memory fades. I require as much detail as you can provide. The trip is a difficult one, and I must ask my favors while my mind is sound. A postscript: I know you have shared my first note. I ask you not to share the others. Please. I do not ask this for myself.”
Her mom tells Miranda how we all walk around as though we’re wearing veils that limit our vision of the world. Every now and then the wind lifts the veil and we see the world as it really is, “…[A ll the beauty, and cruelty, and sadness, and love. But mostly we are happy not to. Some people learn to lift the veil themselves. Then they don’t have to depend on the wind anymore.” Miranda considers the ghostwriter of her notes and wonders, “I’ve thought a lot about those veils. I wonder if, every once in a while, someone is born without one. Someone who sees the big stuff all the time. Like maybe you.”
Richard subsequently discovers work shoes he’d left in their apartment months ago are gone. His shoes are made to adjust for one leg being longer than the other--who would even want them, old and customized as they were? And Miranda gets a third note:
“You will want proof. 3 p.m. today: Colin’s knapsack. Christmas Day: Tesser well. April 27th: Studio TV-15. P.S. Yawns do serve a purpose. They cool the brain by bringing air high into the nasal passage, which has the effect of increasing alertness.”
With this postscript both Miranda and the reader have a first real clue. When Marcus had punched Sal, it looked as though he’d also noticed Miranda’s science poster, which had asked--but not answered--whether there's a reason people yawn. Suddenly, too, Marcus is friendly again. Then Richard gives Miranda a first edition of A Wrinkle in Time for Christmas, signed “Tesser well,” by the author herself. This is the second proof offered her by the ghostwriter.
With this postscript both Miranda and the reader have a first real clue. When Marcus had punched Sal, it looked as though he’d also noticed Miranda’s science poster, which had asked--but not answered--whether there's a reason people yawn. Suddenly, too, Marcus is friendly again. Then Richard gives Miranda a first edition of A Wrinkle in Time for Christmas, signed “Tesser well,” by the author herself. This is the second proof offered her by the ghostwriter.
Then one day right as school ends at 3, Sal spots Marcus nearby and starts to run away in fear. Marcus sees a truck coming that Sal obviously doesn’t see, tries to follow and calls out to him to stop, but Sal is running and can’t hear. “I knew the exact moment he registered the truck. Stopping on a dime might have saved him, but there was no way he could do it. My brain boomed inside my head: “Sal is going to die.” “SAL IS GOING TO DIE.”
“Suddenly, the laughing man was in the street, his right leg flying out in a mighty kick. The laughing man’s foot hit Sal’s body. Sal flew backward and hit the ground, hard. The truck hit the laughing man. Marcus sat down on the ground and started crying like there was no tomorrow. Really sobbing his head off.” Colin’s backpack was nearby; Miranda picks it up and finds a final note: “Inside was a small square of stiff paper just like the first three: This is the story I need you to tell. This and everything that has led up to it. Please deliver your letter by hand. You know where to find me. My apologies for the terse instructions. The trip is a difficult one; I can carry nothing, and a man can only hold so much paper in his mouth.” By this time, your reviewer's head was spinning as much as Miranda's.
Every seemingly disparate element in the novel finally comes together at the end. A man traveling through time can take nothing with him but what he can carry in his mouth, which explains both the occasional sightings of naked men and the oddly lumpy, stiffened paper of each note. The laughing man’s seemingly seizure-like kicks were actually practice to save Sal’s life; his nonsense talk referred to the love of his life, Julia, who had first bullied Miranda and then became her dear friend when Miranda offered a truce; it's Julia’s picture as an older woman the laughing man sees when he goes to sleep under the mailbox. Marcus had first been interested in Julia when she took off her ring to explain to Miranda how time ripples. Marcus had seen his older brother get beaten up by other boys; his brother had told him he’d have to hit somebody sooner or later and be hit in return, to know what it meant to grow up. Marcus had tried that out with Sal, but Sal hadn’t hit him back, and Marcus, puzzled, hadn’t known what to do after that. Sal had realized that he and Miranda were isolating themselves from potential other friends, and that as they grew up they couldn’t remain best friends, because boys and girls grow in different directions; he’d only been trying to expand their horizons but didn’t have any way to explain things. He’d just wanted to play basketball with the guys! And Richard's special work shoes had been taken to facilitate the kick that saved Sal's life.
“I tried to forget about the laughing man. I mean, I tried to forget about you. But it didn’t work. There was something left over: the letter I was supposed to write. This is the story I need you to tell. Please deliver your letter by hand. You know where to find me.
“Marcus is the magic thread. You are the laughing man. You are Marcus. Marcus is the laughing man. Or he will be, when he’s old. ‘None of it makes sense!’ my brain yelled. ‘But all of it is true,’ I answered. Like I said, it lasted just under a minute. It lasted fifty-five seconds, to be precise. Which is how long it took Mom to guess six categories and win ten thousand dollars. And then Mom and I are on the stage together, jumping up and down until they make us get off.” Of course, as Marcus had written in his third note, that’ll happen--or happened--on April 27th. Mom will probably marry Richard. She and Miranda will probably move into Richard’s place in a much better area. But mom will DEFINITELY be using that $10K for law school!
_________
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*First published in 1962, A Wrinkle in Time won the Newbery Medal, the Sequoyah Book Award, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. It is still widely read today and worthy of review here, another time.
** “The Supreme Court Strips Us of Miranda Warnings: Today, Justice Alito ruled that you have constitutional rights, but no right to know what they are.” See: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/supreme-court-miranda-rights/
And: “Supreme Court's Miranda Rights Decision Ripped by Lawmakers, Legal Experts” See: https://www.newsweek.com/supreme-courts-miranda-rights-decision-ripped-lawmakers-legal-experts-1718718
*** Believe it or not, before government began privatizing social services, there actually WERE dental clinics in many public schools. "By 1930, approximately 1.2 million children and adolescents had been treated in clinics, representing nearly two-thirds of all patients treated in clinics. Of these children and adolescents, almost half were served in public schools. School-based dental clinics were found most often in the Northeast, with the South having the fewest. The clinics also offered postdoctoral training and employment for recently graduated dentists." Excerpted from: https://www.mchoralhealth.org/milestones/1906.html#:~:text=Of%20these%20children%20and%20adolescents,employment%20for%20recently%20graduated%20dentists.