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Re: When You Reach Me Re-Reading
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From: Sheila A Welch <sheilawelch_at_juno.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:35:35 -0600
Hi,
I bought When You Reach Me yesterday and read it last night -- actually into this morning -- and can understand why it won the Newbery. It's a great book to read and ponder. Here are a few thoughts and comments.
I noticed many of the details and enjoyed discovering their significance as the story unfolded. I'd heard about the book, so had a good idea what was going on but still enjoyed the element of suspense. I did assume, at first, that the punching scene-- when; it happened -- was somehow involved in the solution. (Marcus doing the punch to change something that would happen in the future if he didn't punch Sal.) I liked that the punch turned out to be the catalyst. I didn't know much about the $20,000 Pyramid, but after learning how it was played, the chapter titles made sense. As an author myself, I appreciated how the story handled the time sequence with sections in present tense and others in past tense. I thought it was clever, bringing in the racial mix of the school by saying that there were ten kids, in addition to Julia, who used brown construction paper for their self-portraits. Most time-slip stories fit into a fantasy slot rather than science fiction. Examples such as Tom's Midnight Garden or The Devi l's Arithmetic come to mind. And I've heard A Wrinkle in Time described as both. WYRM shares the science fiction category with another excellent novel for this age group, The Power of Un by Nancy Etchemendy (Cricket Book, 2000).
Sheila Kelly Welch Author/Illustrator
On Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:47:48 -0700 lhendr writes: The first time I read WYRM I read for the story, but had lots of questions about what was going on and about details that stood out as puzzling but probably meaning something. The second time through, I took more notes, and was amazed at how everything fit together, and saw that those those details were often important clues. I was puzzled by the chapter titles, until someone pointed out that most of them were categories in the $20,000 Pyramid. When Miranda first describes the laughing man, she says he must have at least 30 fillings in his teeth, visible when he opened his mouth wide to laugh. Later we see that Marcus has many appointments with the dentist.
I wondered why it was mentioned that Anne Marie's father brought her what looked like a glass of water when he brought Miranda cider, and why it was pointed out that Anne Marie puled the cheese off her pizza and left the crust. On first reading these seemed to be extraneous details, but I noticed them because of that. Later we find out why these bits are important.
It was also only on rereading that I figured out the time sequence in Miranda's telling and the time of the various events.
But even without figuring out all the details, the story captivates.
Linnea
Linnea Hendrickson Albuquerque, NM
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:35:35 -0600
Hi,
I bought When You Reach Me yesterday and read it last night -- actually into this morning -- and can understand why it won the Newbery. It's a great book to read and ponder. Here are a few thoughts and comments.
I noticed many of the details and enjoyed discovering their significance as the story unfolded. I'd heard about the book, so had a good idea what was going on but still enjoyed the element of suspense. I did assume, at first, that the punching scene-- when; it happened -- was somehow involved in the solution. (Marcus doing the punch to change something that would happen in the future if he didn't punch Sal.) I liked that the punch turned out to be the catalyst. I didn't know much about the $20,000 Pyramid, but after learning how it was played, the chapter titles made sense. As an author myself, I appreciated how the story handled the time sequence with sections in present tense and others in past tense. I thought it was clever, bringing in the racial mix of the school by saying that there were ten kids, in addition to Julia, who used brown construction paper for their self-portraits. Most time-slip stories fit into a fantasy slot rather than science fiction. Examples such as Tom's Midnight Garden or The Devi l's Arithmetic come to mind. And I've heard A Wrinkle in Time described as both. WYRM shares the science fiction category with another excellent novel for this age group, The Power of Un by Nancy Etchemendy (Cricket Book, 2000).
Sheila Kelly Welch Author/Illustrator
On Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:47:48 -0700 lhendr writes: The first time I read WYRM I read for the story, but had lots of questions about what was going on and about details that stood out as puzzling but probably meaning something. The second time through, I took more notes, and was amazed at how everything fit together, and saw that those those details were often important clues. I was puzzled by the chapter titles, until someone pointed out that most of them were categories in the $20,000 Pyramid. When Miranda first describes the laughing man, she says he must have at least 30 fillings in his teeth, visible when he opened his mouth wide to laugh. Later we see that Marcus has many appointments with the dentist.
I wondered why it was mentioned that Anne Marie's father brought her what looked like a glass of water when he brought Miranda cider, and why it was pointed out that Anne Marie puled the cheese off her pizza and left the crust. On first reading these seemed to be extraneous details, but I noticed them because of that. Later we find out why these bits are important.
It was also only on rereading that I figured out the time sequence in Miranda's telling and the time of the various events.
But even without figuring out all the details, the story captivates.
Linnea
Linnea Hendrickson Albuquerque, NM
---Received on Wed 27 Jan 2010 01:35:35 PM CST
