When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Book Summary and Review) - Minute Book Report

This is a quick book summary and analysis of When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. This channel discusses and reviews books, novels, and short stories through drawing...poorly. New Minute Book Reports are posted every week.

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This is a story about a girl named Miranda who lives with her mother in New York City. Her mother works at a law firm and is preparing for the game show, $20,000 Pyramid, with boyfriend, Richard, and Miranda.

Miranda is friends with a boy named Sal who lives in the same apartment building. One day, as they are walking home from school, a boy named Marcus punches Sal in the stomach and runs away. Sal limps home and becomes distant toward Miranda.

Eventually Miranda makes new friends, Annemarie and Colin, and the three of them work at a local sandwich shop during lunch. She even begins talking to Marcus about time travel.

Miranda starts receiving random notes that instruct her to write a letter. She is confused, but as she receives more letters, the letters begin predicting future events.

One day, as Miranda sees Sal walking ahead of her, Marcus starts to run after Sal. Sal, being scared, runs from Marcus. However, as Sal is running, he doesn't see an oncoming truck. Just as he is about to get hit, a homeless man pushes Sal out of the way. The homeless man dies instantly.

Sal is shaken up, but recovers. Miranda comforts Sal and they talk about how their friendship has changed.

Miranda's mother goes to the game show and wins. During the show, Miranda realizes that the homeless man is Marcus from the future.

In the end, Miranda finishes her letter and gives it to Marcus.

This story addresses an interesting dynamic of friendship. When two people are such good friends that they rely solely on each other to provide companionship and have no other friends, it can become difficult to socially interact with others when the other person is not around. Sal realizes this and so he wants to make friends other than Miranda.

While this story takes place in the real world and contains all of the real financial and social struggles that people face, it does also tease the idea of time travel. Early in the story, Marcus details the intricacies of time travel and lays the foundation for what will ultimately be the reveal of the homeless man's identity.

And this reveal is not fast either. Future Marcus has to integrate into the society as a homeless man for a long time before he can save Sal's life.

This disconnect from one's future self is also revealed in this discussion on time travel in that the present self often doesn't recognize the future self. Of course, this doesn't only apply to time travel, but to the more traditional linear timeline as well.

People change several times over the course of their lifetime and it's important for readers to remember this. The likes and dislikes, attitudes, and beliefs that a person may have now will most likely change in the future, maybe to the point where our past self is unrecognizable to our present self. This doesn't mean it's useless to have likes and dislikes, but rather a reminder to keep our opinions in perspective and that it's okay for them to change.

Through Minute Book Reports, hopefully you can get the plot and a few relevant discussion points in just a couple of minutes.

Music by WingoWinston from newgrounds.com.