When You Reach Me

When You Reach Me 

When You Reach Me

By: Rebecca Stead

Copyright: 2009

Published by: Random House Children's Books

2010 Newbery Award Winner

My Rating:

Reading Level: Grades 3-7

Lexile Measure: 750L

When twelve-year-old Miranda starts finding letters from an unknown sender in random places that are trying to warn her about something that will happen in the future.  This futuristic, mysterious and science-fictional story will have you on the edge of your seat with many twists and turns that eventually leads to a full circle conclusion.  Who are the letters from and how can they predict the future?  Find out in this fascinating novel.



Suggested Delivery:                         

Small group or read aloud

Words to describe book:  

Mysterious 

Gripping

Emotional

Fascinating

Relatable      

                                                               

Useful Electronic Resources: 

Genre Discovery (Page 3 of PDF)
 Students visit the library and research different genres of books and identify 3 different types of books-a science-fiction text, a fantasy text and one that combines both genres.  The group will have a discussion about what makes each of the books that particular genre.  This is a good resource and activity because When You Reach Me is a novel that intertwines the two genres and having an understanding of the genres will be important to discussions throughout the novel. 
 What is the Newbery Award? Pre-Reading and Post-Reading Activity: Students can learn more about the Newbery Award and how a novel gets nominated and wins.  The students could research the award prior to reading and after reading they can decide if they would chose this book to win the award and explain why or why not by using the guidelines the Newbery Award members use. 


Teaching Opportunities: 


Key Vocabulary:

Despise (56)- A strong dislike for something
Billowing (98)- To swell or puff up; usually an action by the wind
Teleportation (103)- Magical transfer of something from one place to another without changing its form
Mystified (105)- Very puzzled or confused
Terse (162)- A brief direct in a way that comes across as rude or unfriendly


Reading Strategy Suggestions to increase literal and/or inferential comprehension: 

Pre-reading Strategy

Looking at the front cover: what do you predict is going to happen in this story?  What are all of the pictures of objects doing all over the cover?  Where do you think the story is going to take place?  Who do you think "me" is in the title?  Use these questions to infer some possibilities of what might take place in the story.  You can also read the front flap to get some more background information to answer the questions with more information.

During-reading Strategy

Make a chart of all of the main characters that are important to the storyline.  Write down a few describing words in the beginning third of the book, the second third of the book and the last third of the book to analyze how the characters motives, attitudes and relationships have changed.  This information can lead to a group discussion or small group discussion and students can ask why the characters changed or didn't change and what moments were important in building their character. This activity will help make inferences about the characters motives and will also help the students find concrete answers and places in the text where the students personality or relationships have changed, using both inferential and literal comprehension strategies.  

Post-reading Strategy (Page 34)

This activity has the students look back into the text and find evidence about who the writer of the letter could have been.  The chart also has the students come to a conclusion as well as ask a new question that they would have based on the evidence and their conclusion.  This allows the students to find concrete examples from the text and make conclusions or inferences about the information and create a question based on the literal and inferential information.

  

Writing Activity (Page 4- self-identity theme)

This activity has students think about the theme of self-identity by analyzing and inferring about some of the events that happened to Miranda to make her the person she is at the end of the novel.  The prompt given from RandomHouse is:

"Describe Miranda at the beginning of the novel. How does she change as the story unfolds? How does working at Jimmy’s and being part of a group give Miranda confidence that she didn’t have when she only hung out with Sal? The first note that Miranda receives says, “I am coming to save your friend’s life and my own.” (p. 60) Explain the literal and figurative meaning of this note, and what it has to do with self-identity. Discuss the role of the mysterious notes in boosting Miranda’s self-worth."This prompt would be a good writing activity for students to think about the themes in the book and in particular, the theme of self-identity.  The teacher could also pick a few of the themes for the students to reflect and make inferences about to tie the whole novel together.