The Storysleuths Game Plan for When You Reach Me

Dear Readers,
Have you finished reading When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead? Did you give in to the urge to instantly read it a second time? Did you then scour your bookshelves for your tattered, dog-eared copy of A Wrinkle in Time and revisit Camazotz with Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace? Great! Then that means you were as wowed by this book as we were!

We’re mixing things up a bit this month. Instead of exploring tips for writers chapter-by-chapter, we’re doing a topic-by-topic exploration, with each discussion likely pointing to examples of excellent writing throughout the book. A warning that there will be spoilers, so if you have not yet read this amazing book, now is the time. And if you find yourself asking, “How did she do that?,” as we did, read it again, and then come join us as we try to answer that question ourselves.

Topics we'll look at from a writer’s perspective are:

Chronology
Veracity of Main Character
Roundness of Secondary Characters
Importance of Incidental Characters
Larger Social Issues
Mystery
Second Person Address (or is it?)
Chapter Headings
Verb Tense
Through-line of Characters
Time Travel
Book Covers

If you loved this book as much as we did, you might also enjoy these links:

 School Library Journal 
Educating Alice 
Library Voice 
 Goodreads 

Allyson and Meg