When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead

     I just finished reading When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead for the third time. Sometimes after books multiple times you realize things that make you like the book more, or you realize things that make you like the book less. In this case, I liked it even more.  Since I have finished this book I am going to do an overview/review of When You Reach Me.
     The first thing I'm going to be talking about are the notes Miranda gets from the Laughing Man (Marcus). At the beginning Miranda is unaware the notes are from Marcus and she pretends they are not for her because she is scared. The first note is addressed to her as "M". She tells herself that M could be anybody and so does her mom, but they both know that the notes are for Miranda. And if the first note wasn't scary enough, having a stranger telling her that her best friend was in danger and asking for her house keys,  the second note was worse.

Most people would think that the since her full name was included in the second note that would make it more scary, I disagree. Miranda knew that the notes were directed at her in the first place. What I think is scary is when he says, "I know you have shared my first note. I ask you not to share the others please. I do not ask this for myself." She says after reading the note, that it scared her because she was alone. And that's exactly how I feel.
      For some reason when anything creepy or scary happens to me, being alone makes it ten times worse. I think that if you're with someone at least you have somebody to talk to. But since Miranda doesn't know who is sending her the notes, and if they knew she shared the first note they would probably find out if she shared the second one. Since she has absolutely no idea who is sending her the notes, for all she knows they could be dangerous. Because Miranda is very independent, she doesn't want to get into any trouble.
      In conclusion, these notes can be perceived in many different ways. It may seem like the notes were a small part of the book, but if you really think about it the notes build up the whole story. This is one of my favorite books, and after reading it again I've noticed even more things, in the last reading response about When You Reach Me I listed other things I noticed, but the notes are much deeper. Think about how you would feel inside if a stranger was sending you notes telling you that they know you and predicting your future and you couldn't let anybody know about any of it.