When You Reach Me

Chapters 1-8

Reading Check

1. The $20,000 Pyramid (Chapter 1, “Things You Keep in a Box”)

2. His right leg is two inches longer than his left and he needs special shoes for it. Tapping his knee is his way of reminding Miranda and her mom that nobody’s perfect. (Chapter 2, “Things That Go Missing”)

3. She was named “after a criminal” or the Miranda rights which police are supposed to read to people upon arrest. Miranda is also the name of a character in the play The Tempest by William Shakespeare. (Chapter 3, “Things you Hide”)

4. in the nozzle of the fire hose in the apartment stairwell (Chapter 3, “Things you Hide”)

5. since they were babies (Chapter 4, “The Speed Round”)

6. She asks them for the time. (Chapter 8, “Mom’s Rules for Life in New York City”)

Short-Answer Response

1. Miranda keeps talking about how things were before Sal got punched. She talks about how they were friends since they were little and she felt like they were part of one another. Their apartments are very similar and their mothers became friends the day Miranda and her mom moved in. (Details can be found throughout Chapters 1-8)

2. Miranda’s mom is a single mom and they often have visits from her mother’s boyfriend, Richard. Miranda’s mom wears nail polish and stockings in outrageous colors. Miranda has permission to go to other designated safe places (Sal’s apartment and Belle’s grocery) while she waits after school for her mom to get home. They hide a key so that Miranda can get in if she forgets her key. Her mom will appear on a TV show that was very popular in the 1970s. (Details are throughout the section, Chapters 1-8)

Chapters 9-17

Reading Check

1. a trip to China, a new camera, carpeting for Miranda’s room, a new TV, a sailboat, a secret plan that Richard and Miranda share (Chapter 9, “Things You Wish For”)

2. He uses the position of the sun in relation to a building as well as the time of year (like a sundial). (Chapter 10, “Things That Sneak Up on You”)

3. Annemarie and her best friend, Julia, aren’t friends anymore / had a falling out / Julia decided to punish Annemarie for something. (Chapter 11, “Things That Bounce”)

4. She works as an errand runner for the front office and has to bring him to the school dentist. (Chapter 14, “Things You Keep Secret”)

5. working at Jimmy’s sandwich shop (Chapter 15, “Things that Smell”)

6. sticking out of a library book (Chapter 17, “The First Note”)

Short-Answer Response

1. Annemarie lives in a building with a doorman. She has a dad who works from home and makes her snacks after school. Miranda is a latchkey kid, and her mom works away from home. She has keys to get into her apartment. (Chapter 12, “Things That Burn”)

2. Marcus is highly intelligent. He reads advanced math and science books and can tell time without a watch. But he also doesn’t remember the small details about big ideas. He and Miranda both like science and thinking about time travel. (Chapter 14, “Things You Keep Secret”)

3. Someone used the key they had hidden in the fire hose to break into the apartment and place a note in Miranda’s library book. (Chapter 16, “Things You Don’t Forget” and Chapter 17, “The First Note”)

4. Answers will vary, as will textual support cited in support of students’ predictions. 

Chapters 18-26

Reading Check

1. He has her count the rolls after they get delivered. (Chapter 18, “Things on a Slant”)

2. ignore them, don’t respond, pretend they are invisible (Chapter 19, “White Things”)

3. inside a bag of rolls at Jimmy’s sandwich shop (Chapter 20, “The Second Note”)

4. a bunch of two-dollar bills, folded into little triangles (Chapter 20, “The Second Note”)

5. It’s gross, they don’t get paid, and/or Annemarie shouldn’t be eating sandwiches and drinking soda. (Chapter 23, “Messy Things”)

6. in two-dollar bills (Chapter 25, “Things You Hold On To”)

7. a pair of Richard’s work shoes (Chapter 26, “Salty Things”)

Short-Answer Response

1. Jimmy is a little rude, a little racist, and doesn’t like Julia. Miranda thinks he sees through Julia and that he’s hard to please. Jimmy is thrifty, and a little quirky because he collects two-dollar bills but doesn’t spend them. (Answers will vary and draw details from throughout Chapters 18-26)

Chapters 27-37

Reading Check

1. Annemarie has epilepsy and her dad has her on a special diet that keeps her from having seizures. Annemarie has been eating food that could cause her to have an episode. (Chapter 28, “Things that Crack”)

2. Annemarie has been throwing her lunch in the trash on the way to school. (Chapter 29, “Things Left Behind”)

3. in her coat pocket (Chapter 30, “The Third Note”)

4. Julia helps explain time travel to Miranda. (Chapter 31, “Things That Make No Sense”)

5. the two stolen bread rolls in Colin’s knapsack on a cold December day at 3:00pm (Chapter 32, “The First Proof”)

6. a rose (Chapter 29, “Things Left Behind” and Chapter 33, “Things You Give Away”)

7. His Flintstone bank is stolen and he thinks the children had something to do with it. (Chapter 36, “Things That Turn Pink”)

8. He accuses Julia of stealing because she’s Black. (Chapter 37, “Things That Fall Apart”)

9. Julia and her family travel all over the world and Julia wears fancy jewelry. In second grade, Julia describes her eye color as “sixty-percent-cacao chocolate” and her skin color as “café au lait”—things she learned about on a trip to Switzerland (Chapter 11, “Things That Bounce”). Miranda resents Julia’s privilege and vocabulary as snobbery and privately nicknames Julia “Swiss Miss.” She’s embarrassed that Jimmy thought she was racist and disgusted that she felt good about making him laugh when she didn’t really understand what he was laughing about. (Chapter 37, “Things That Fall Apart”)

Short-Answer Response

1. Answers will vary, as will textual support cited in support of students’ predictions.

2. Miranda kind of likes Colin and she thinks Annemarie does too. She doesn’t want it to be true that Colin might like Annemarie and not her. She’s a little jealous and confused. (Chapter 33, “Things You Give Away”)

3. After her conversation with Miranda and Annemarie, Julia probably went to the nurse’s office to let them know that Annemarie had a seizure. (Chapter 28, “Things That Crack”)

Chapters 38-45

Reading Check

1. an autographed copy of A Wrinkle in Time (Chapter 39, “The Second Proof”)

2. They cry in the elevator, then go to the movies. Then they meet Richard at the apartment and go out to eat at a diner. (Chapter 40, “Things in an Elevator”)

3. She realizes that Alice is just embarrassed to go to the bathroom all the time, and that Julia misses Annemarie as much as Miranda misses Sal. She realizes that Julia left the rose for Annemarie and that Julia has been looking out for her friend all along, not being mean to her. (Chapter 41, “Things You Realize”)

4. The laughing man likely stole it; Belle tells Miranda that he’s been coming in and paying for food with two-dollar bills folded up into little triangles. (Chapter 43, “Things That Turn Upside Down”)

5. Colin (Chapter 43, “Things That Turn Upside Down”)

6. Miranda finds the final note in the bottom of the shoe the laughing man was wearing when he saved Sal’s life. It was Richard’s missing work shoe. (Chapter 45, “The Last Note”)

7. the laughing man (Chapter 45, “The Last Note”)

Short-Answer Response

1. Miranda focuses on the small details. Like most people, she focuses on what her brain makes a habit of noticing, and not so much on the big picture. She is also judgmental and quick to make up her mind about how things should go, which makes it hard for her to change her mind when she has new facts. (Details throughout the text. This is an opportunity for students to incorporate information from the preliminary work on preconceptions versus reality and how the brain works).

2. She realizes it feels good to be kind to people. She starts to develop empathy and a new understanding as she realizes people and events aren’t what she thought they were. She decides to be a kinder person. (Chapter 41, “Things You Realize”)

3. She thought Julia was stuck up, spoiled, pretentious, and mean (Chapter 11, “Things that Bounce”). She realizes that Julia is a good friend to Annemarie and that they have a lot in common. Both their moms aren’t around after school, and Miranda and Julia have the same favorite book. Julia is really into space, science, time travel and UFOs. (Chapter 44, “Things that are Sweet”)

4. Answers will vary based on students’ previous predictions.

Chapters 46-55

Reading Check

1. He realized that Miranda was his only friend and that having only one friend wasn’t good for either of them. (Chapter 47, “Things That Heal”)

2. His pain medication makes him sleepy. (Chapter 47, “Things that Heal”)

3. Belle accused Marcus of maliciously chasing Sal into the street. (Chapter 49, “Things You Line Up”)

4. Miranda’s mom appearing on The $20,000 Pyramid with a time, date, and studio number (Chapter 49, “Things You Line Up”)

5. Miranda realizes that she has to write the letter because the only way everything makes sense is if she already wrote it. She realizes that’s what Marcus has been trying to explain to her about time travel, and that Marcus and the laughing man are the same person. (Chapter 51, “Magic Thread”)

6. They give her a packet of applications for law school. They want her to use the money to finish her degree. (Chapter 52, “Things that Open”)

7. a drawing of Julia as an elderly woman (Chapter 53, “Things that Blow Away”)

Short-Answer Response

1. Miranda’s mom never finished law school, but she really wanted to become a lawyer and not a paralegal. (Evidence is available throughout the novel: for example, Miranda’s name, mom visiting women in prison to give legal advice, and the law school applications as her gift.)

2. The last hint is Luisa talking about how Dick Clark never ages. It makes Miranda remember the conversation she had with Marcus about how a time traveler from the future won’t look like they do in the present, so no one would recognize her if she came back from the future and went to a movie. All of the other clues fall into place during her “behind the veil” moment. (Chapter 50, “The $20,000 Pyramid”; Chapter 51, “Magic Thread”; and Chapter 31, “Things That Make No Sense”)

3. If Marcus hadn’t gone back in time to save Sal, Sal would have died that day. The Marcus in the future had to live with that guilt. He punched Sal, which made Sal afraid of him, which is why Sal ran into the street the day he tried to apologize to him. By going back in time to prevent that from happening, future Marcus made the situation right and saved Sal’s life. (Details throughout the text. Students have to draw conclusions based on some understanding of the time travel concept as well.)

Cumulative Review

Reading Check

1. Marcus or The Laughing Man (Chapter 51, “Magic Thread”)

Multiple Choice

1. B

2. A

3. D

4. E

5. C

6. A

7. A

8. D

Short-Answer Response

1. She’s been reading A Wrinkle in Time, but she hasn’t connected the dots yet. This is the author’s way of describing intuition.

2. The author uses this allusion to A Wrinkle in Time to give readers a clue to the ending. Marcus also knows the hint will get Miranda thinking harder about what’s happening, because that book is so important to her.