Sunday, November 4, 2012

When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead

     I just started When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead, for the second time, I like reading books twice in general, but after reading The Girl who was on Fire, I was inspired to read When You Reach Me again, because it is one of my favorite books, and I want to see what new things I notice.
     The first thing I noticed after reading just the first chapter was that all of the chapter titles start off with "things that..., or things you...,"I noticed this before, but I just figured it was part of Rebecca Stead's style of writing, but then I realized/ remembered that Miranda's mom is entering the $20,000 pyramid, (a game show,) and on the $20,000 pyramid, that's how the questions are formatted. This may seem obvious, but it's just a little example of how even obvious thing can only be noticed when thought about.
     Another thing I thought about, is Miranda's mom's trust issues. I've always thought it was a bit weird that her boyfriend Richard who has been with them for a long time, and is almost always at their house, still doesn't have keys to their house, it seems as if Miranda's mom somehow doesn't trust her own boyfriend in someway. Miranda claims that he always eats dinner with them and is at their house whenever her mom is home (otherwise he wouldn't be able to get in) so Miranda is very confused at why he doesn't have a key.
     Adding onto Miranda's mom's trust issues, Miranda is "a latch key kid" which basically means that she is very independent. She walks home alone, and then spends time alone at home, until her mom comes home, it's not weird to me that Miranda's mom trusts her own daughter, it's just strange, that she feels a difference between letting her 11 year old be completely alone for hours, and letting her boyfriend who she has known for years, and is always at her house, have access to her house.
     In conclusion, when you re-read a book you notice, and start to question things you never did before, this is very interesting, and I can't wait to notify you again once I have noticed more things.

3 comments:

  1. First of all, I love this book. Secondly, I like how you include your opinion in your posts, and how you retell parts of the story so that someone who hasn't read the book could understand.

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  2. Olive, your blog post for When You Reach Me is very original. Instead of just having a quote and explaining how it relates to your thesis statement, you talk about what you have noticed differently when reading the book for you third time. I read this book in 4th grade with my class so are teacher gave us hints about deeper meaning but I didn't catch on. Reading your post made me really think back into the story and I remember how thought of the book as amazing but a little confusing. I should probably re-read the book with your ideas in mind!

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  3. I like to re-read books too truthfully speaking i read Matilda about 4 times but i notice something new about the book everytime.

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