History Literature / WhenYouReachMe

''When You Reach Me'' is a 2009 novel by Creator/RebeccaStead with allusions to ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime''. Despite its time traveling elements and mystery, the book is at heart a ComingOfAge novel that subtly deals with social issues, racism, and the quiet dangers of late seventies New York. It won numerous awards, including the UsefulNotes/NewberyMedal.

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Most chapters are references to ''The $20,000 Pyramid'' subjects, with titles in the form "Things that..." or "...Things". The few chapters that aren't references deal with the notes.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Sal's life is saved]], but even Miranda understands the terrible burden [[spoiler: Marcus]] will feel when he reads her letter and learns that [[spoiler: he watched his own death]] making a tragedy even worse for him.
* CantTakeAnythingWithYou: One of the later notes hints at this, saying "A man can only hold so much paper in his mouth." This seems to extend to clothes as well.
* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: The weird kicking motion the Laughing Man always practices was actually him preparing to save Sal's life.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: The [[spoiler: laughing man]] and his inexplicable actions suddenly make sense when you find out that he was [[spoiler: Marcus, traveling back in time from the future in order to save Sal's life]].

** The Laughing Man becomes transfixed with Marcus whenever they cross paths. Marcus doesn't know it, [[spoiler: but it's because they're actually the same person.]]
** The kids have to stay inside twice because some crazy dude is running around naked. [[spoiler: That crazy dude is the Laughing Man delivering Miranda's notes, and he's naked because he can't take clothes with him when he travels back in time.]]
** In the ending, Miranda heavily implies [[spoiler: the Laughing Man/Marcus survived off eating Annemarie's perfectly good lunch that she tossed in the trash for months.]]

* EurekaMoment: Luisa tells Miranda that "Dick Clark never ages", which triggers an epiphany that [[spoiler:the Laughing Man will be Marcus when he ages.]]

* FirstKiss: Knock, knock. Oh, it's you. Kiss. [[spoiler: Between Colin and Miranda.]]

** After Marcus punched Sal, Miranda mentioned it looked like he was reading her poster about why humans yawn. [[spoiler: One of the notes answers her question.]]
** Marcus tells Miranda that, if you from fifty years in the future were to travel back in time to your current self, you might not even recognize them as you. [[spoiler: This is ''exactly'' what happened with the Laughing Man: Marcus as an old man traveled back in time, and his child self didn't even recognize it as him.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Marcus chases after Sal to try to apologize. Future!Marcus sacrifices himself to push Sal out of the way of a moving vehicle, saving his life.]]

* MeaningfulEcho: "Common sense is just the name for the way we're used to thinking." First said by Marcus to Miranda, and later repeated by Miranda when she realizes that time travel is real.
* MistakenForRacist: Miranda calls Julia "Swiss Miss", in reference to her Swiss watch, but it's mistaken by Jimmy (who approves) and later Annemarie (who does not) as a reference to her skin color (Swiss Miss is an American hot chocolate brand.)
* NakedOnArrival: As described in CantTakeAnythingWithYou above. At one point during the climax, Miranda even sees a naked man appear and then disappear. This was due to [[spoiler: the laughing Man]] appearing from the future. In fact, it is likely all of the times they were locked in school due to a naked man seen nearby were all the same thing.

* OnlyFriend: Sal and Miranda were this to each other, until Sal [[DeconstructedTrope realized how unhealthy and frankly lonely it is to be able to rely on just one person]] and started to make other friends. At the end of the book, both of them have made plenty of friends, while still being close to each other.

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: Whether this trope or StableTimeLoop is in effect all depends on how you believe the "Save your friend's life and my own" statement was fulfilled.

** "The Last Note." [[spoiler: Miranda catalogs Sal's near death by car collision, the Laughing Man's actual death, and the realization that the Laughing Man was the one writing the notes.]]
** "Magic Thread." [[spoiler: Miranda realizes that the Laughing Man accomplished all he did through time travel, and that the Laughing Man is Marcus. Also, Miranda's mom wins ten thousand dollars.]]

* WouldntHurtAChild: The teenaged boys who hung outside the garage would taunt and torment younger kids, sometimes pushing them a little, but they would never hit them. That was beneath who they were.

* PuppyLove: Miranda and Colin are in the sixth grade, and they like each other.

** The Laughing Man always practices this weird kicking motion. [[spoiler: He's practicing the kick that will save Sal's life.]]

* InformedRealLifeFame: In an InUniverse example, Miranda experiences this at work while watching a taping of ''The $20,000 Series/{{Pyramid}}''. ("The celebrities take the stage. I've never heard of either one of them.")

* BittersweetEnding: Even Miranda understands the terrible burden [[spoiler: Marcus]] will feel when he reads her letter and learns that [[spoiler: he watched his own death]] making a tragedy even worse for him.
* CantTakeAnythingWithYou: One of the later notes hints at this, saying "A man can only hold so much paper in his mouth."

* DomedHometown: Discussed by the Laughing Man when he talks about the "burn scale", possibly a reference to what is known as the U.V. Index. He laments that they haven't put the dome up yet.

* FirstKiss: Knock, knock. Oh, it's you. Kiss.

* InformedRealLifeFame: In an in-universe example, Miranda experiences this at work while watching a taping of ''The $20,000 Series/{{Pyramid}}''. ("The celebrities take the stage. I've never heard of either one of them.")

* IHatePastMe

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Julia could be a jerk at times, even to Annemarie and especially to Miranda, but she truly cared for Annemarie. Miranda even found out that part of how Julia treated her was how she had treated Julia in the past and, after making the first move, Miranda did find Julie to be nice.
* LookBothWays: At the climax, Sal is running away from Marcus, who he believes is out to get him, and runs out in the middle of the street where a truck is bearing down on his position with a possibly inattentive driver.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Wheelie, the school secretary, knows all of the students, what class they are in, and even who is absent. But when the police come looking for Marcus, Miranda realizes just how bad the situation is when Wheelie asks them to repeat his name and ask what grade he is in.

''When You Reach Me'' is a 2009 novel by Creator/RebeccaStead with allusions to ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime''. Despite its time traveling elements and mystery, the book is at heart a ComingOfAge novel that subtly deals with social issues, racism, and the quiet dangers of late seventies New York. It won numerous awards, including the NewberyMedal.

''When You Reach Me'' is a 2009 novel by Rebecca Stead with allusions to ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime''. Despite its time traveling elements and mystery, the book is at heart a ComingOfAge novel that subtly deals with social issues, racism, and the quiet dangers of late seventies New York. It won numerous awards, including the NewberyMedal.

* HowWeGotHere: The story starts in the present (and told in the present tense). The story is Miranda narrating the story that she would tell from Sal getting punched to the fateful chase and death as that was the story she was tasked to write down.