Rebecca Stead Trivia

1. In "Things You Beg For," what does Miranda write on the "little pink slip" she gets from the office?

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" (4) by Rebecca Stead

Answer: Truce

She fetches the slip while Alice is in the bathroom. There's not much time before she has to go back to escort her new friend to assembly, so she simply writes one word--followed by her phone number. The note's for Julia, as Miranda feels guilty for not being nicer to the other girl. At first, Alice thinks Miranda left her--possibly like others who'd only pretended to be nice to her--but is relieved to find she hasn't: '"I thought you abandoned me" Alice was standing in front of the bathroom looking all wounded. "Me?" I said. "No way." She smiled. People seemed to like the new me.'

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" (3) by Rebecca Stead

Answer: Julia

The following text is taken from shortly after Julia butts her way into the conversation: '"Think of it like this," Marcus said, oblivious to the look she was giving us. "Time isn't a line stretching out in front of us, going in one direction. It's--well--time is just a construct actually--" "Look," Julia said, cutting him off... She pulled off one of her gloves--they were these beautiful, fuzzy, pale yellow gloves--and she yanked a ring from her finger. "I think of it like this," she said, holding up the ring.' More specifically, a diamond ring. Julia compares time to each "chip," telling Miranda to "pretend the ring is really big, with diamonds all around, and each diamond is one moment." But she still doesn't get it.

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead (2)

Answer: Why Do We Yawn?

She makes up the poster in school. "There are a lot of interesting theories about yawning. Some people think it started as a way of showing off the teeth to scare predators away, or as a way to stretch facial muscles, or to signal to the rest of the tribe that it's time to sleep. My own theory, which I included on my poster, is that yawning is a semi-polite way of telling someone that they're boring everyone to death. Either that or it's a slow-motion sneeze."

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" (4) by Rebecca Stead

Answer: The Laughing Man

The Laughing Man is the "crazy guy" who lives under a mailbox around the corner on Miranda's street. The bank is a Fred Flintstone bank full of two-dollar bills that belongs to a local store owner named Jimmy. Miranda, Annemarie and Colin used to work for Jimmy, cutting sandwiches. When the bank disappears, Jimmy overreacts and fires the three "good kids." He later agrees to rehire them if their classmate, Julia, is forever banned from the store. Annemarie storms out, saying, "He thinks Julia did it because she's black." In "Things That Turn Upside Down," Miranda goes to Belle's Market after school. She's feeling down because her former best friend, Sal, is hanging out with Colin. Belle is glad to see Miranda, and asks to here more about the girl's favorite book, "A Wrinkle in Time." After a brief summary, Belle tells Miranda about "the weirdest thing:" '"You see that guy out there?" She pointed through her front window and across the street to where the laughing man was pacing back and forth on my corner, doing his kicks... She lifted the plastic tray out of the register drawer, and I looked in. It was full of two-dollar bills. Wavy, bent-looking two-dollar bils. "A couple weeks ago, that guy out there starts coming in every day to get a butter-on-white and a banana, and he always pays with these two-dollar bills... He gives them to me all folded up into triangles, if you can believe it. The first time, I didn't even think it was real money. I started telling the guy to get lost!"'

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" (3) by Rebecca Stead

Answer: Almonds

He heats up the container in some way. He also offers Miranda some noodles with sesame sauce, but she politely declines. She does, however, accept a glass of lemonade. Annemarie, on the other hand, drinks a bottle of water, given her special diet.

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead

Answer: It isn't named

Miranda summarizes the novel this way: "It's about a girl named Meg - her dad is missing, and she goes on this trip to another planet to save him." Belle is intrigued, so Miranda retells the story as best as she can, beginning with the storm. From the little we're told in this chapter, and other allusions later in the book, the reader can safely deduce Miranda's novel to be Madeleine L'Engle's 'A Wrinkle in Time.' Source: Wikipedia

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead (2)

Answer: Annemarie

The menu consists of pizza and pop. "In sixth grade, kids with any money, even a little, go out for lunch unless something is going on and they won't let us, like the first week of school, when there was a man running down Broadway stark naked and we all had to eat in the school cafeteria while the police tried to catch him." At this point in the story, Sal isn't talking to Miranda, Colin hasn't made an appearance yet, and Miranda doesn't much care for the way Julia treats the other kids.

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead

Answer: Strawberries

According to Miranda's mom, the berries are too expensive. "She calls them SSO's, which stands for 'strawberry-shaped objects'." While waiting for her mother, Miranda helps Belle around the store, checking to make sure nothing had expired and unloading produce--namely, bananas. As for grapes, though Miranda likes them, her Mom "doesn't like the way grape pickers are treated in California and she refuses to buy them."

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" (4) by Rebecca Stead

Answer: A broken arm and three broken ribs

From the text, it looks like Louisa, Sal's mother, is already at her son's bedside. Miranda's mother later joins her, while Richard stays home with Miranda. In "The Last Note," Miranda tells the reader that "I ran to where Sal was lying very still with his arm tucked underneath him in a way that was not right." Back in "Difficult Things," Miranda is on her bed thinking when her mother joins her: '"Sal is going to be fine, she whispered, putting one arm around me. "The tests are done. He'll probably be home in the morning." I didn't say anything. I was afraid that if I spoke, I would tell her too much--I would tell her about the notes... the two-dollar bills, everything. And I thought that if I did tell her, somehow Sal might not be okay anymore.'

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" (3) by Rebecca Stead

Answer: Annemarie

Her father drops her off, and packs a box full of snacks, which he ties shut "with purple and green curly ribbon, like Christmas presents." Sal used to sleep over at Miranda's when they were younger, but he never stayed the whole time.

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead (2)

Answer: Detroit

Miranda learns this in "Things You Keep Secret" while she is the dentist's "runner". This means that she gets to go from class to class, collecting those students with an appointment with the dentist. The last of these is Marcus, who she met twice before, but never realized went to the same school. He's in the sixth grade, just like Miranda, and is fascinated with time travel. In fact, in second grade he "wrote a report about it... Back in Detroit, where we used to live, till last year." The other three answer choices are places in Pennsylvania.

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead

Answer: Robbie B.

He lets this tidbit slip in gym class, leading to a conversation between Miranda and her mom that afternoon: "Where did Robbie B. get the dumb idea that anyone would name her own daughter after a murderer?" Miranda's response is that "Robbie B.'s dad is a prosecutor. He says that Miranda warnings were named for a guy named Mr. Miranda who committed some horrible crime."

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" (3) by Rebecca Stead

Answer: Jimmy thinks they stole from him

When the three young people reach Jimmy's, he tells them gruffly to go away, and closes the door in their face. Only Colin thinks he's playing a prank or joking around. At first, Jimmy won't even tell them why he's fired them. But he eventually relents and states his opinion that one of them stole his Fred Flintstone bank. Annemarie suggests sending a card to their former boss, explaining that they didn't do it, and asking politely for their jobs back.

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead (2)

Answer: Friday

When Miranda's mother comes home she learns that "it [the door to their apartment] wasn't locked when I got home today." This prompts a search of the place, but everything appeared to be the way it was supposed to be. However, during the evening meal Miranda's mother "stood up and walked out of the apartment... I found her standing in the stairwell, peering into the nozzle of the fire hose." ] This was where their spare key was kept.] "'It makes no sense,' Mom said, standing over her jewelry box and staring down at the gold bracelets that had belonged to her mother. 'Why steal the key, unlock the door, and not take anything?'"

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead

Answer: A nursing home

Her name is Louisa. She and her son live on the first floor of Miranda's apartment building. Sal--Louisa's son--and Miranda used to be inseparable, but, for reasons that are not quite clear yet, that is not the case anymore.

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" (4) by Rebecca Stead

Answer: Marcus

Miranda's waiting in the office when two policemen show up. 'Wheelie looked up from her typewriter. "May I help you?" "There a Marcus Heilbroner enrolled here?" Her face stayed blank. "I believe there might be. But the principal isn't in right now and--" "That's okay. We just need a word with Marcus Heilbroner. Seems he likes to chase kids into the street, and we need to have a word with him about that."' Fearing her friend is abuot to be arrested, Miranda asks to use the phone. When the office secretary refuses, she runs to the dentist's office and uses his phone to call her mother: '"I need help," I said. "The police are at school and I think a kid is going to get arrested. A friend." "But--all the lawyers are in court," she told me. I started to cry. "Can you come, Mom? Right now?" "Me?" she said. And then, "Yes. I'm coming."' Miranda fills the dentist in, and he sends her up to Marcus's class to get him. Sometime after they're all locked in the dentist's office, the police officers get there. The dentist attempts to stall for time until Miranda's mother can arrive. While they wait, Marcus and Miranda talk in hushed whispers. Then her Mom gets there, and ushers the police officers back to the principal's office. Later, Miranda's Mom goes back down to the dentist's: "Let's try to figure this mess out. Who wants to talk first?"

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead (2)

Answer: "I will not be myself when I reach you."

This is the first of the three notes that Miranda receives from an anonymous entity. "Your first note was written in tiny letters on a tiny square of stiff paper that felt like it had once gotten wet. I was packing my knapsack for school when I noticed it sticking out of my library book"-which the sixth grader hadn't even read. The text in its entirety is as follows: "M, This is hard. Harder than I expected, even with your help. But I have been practicing, and my preparations go well. I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own. I ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter. Second, please remember to mention the location of your house key. The trip is a difficult one. I will not be myself when I reach you." That same morning, after seeing the note, Miranda's mother "took the morning off and had the locks changed, even though she said that M could be anyone, that this had nothing to do with our missing key, and that the note could have been stuck in that book by anyone, years ago probably, and we'd never know why."

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead

Answer: The "speed round" and Winner's Circle

In the speed round, there are three sets of seven words, and both contestants and their paired-up celebrities must guess them as quickly as possible. "There are a possible twenty-one points in the speed round, and a perfect score earns a cash bonus of twenty-one hundred dollars." After that, the winning team heads over to the Winner's Circle. Whereas the "speed round" dealt with words, the Winner's Circle asks contestants to accurately name the appropriate categories. "If Mom wins her first speed round and correctly guesses all the categories in the Winner's Circle, she'll win ten thousand dollars. If she wins a second speed round, the Winner's Circle is worth fifteen thousand dollars. And if she wins a third time, she'll go for twenty thousand dollars."

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" (4) by Rebecca Stead

Answer: Belle

The book tells us "she'd seen the whole thing from her store window and thought that Marcus had chased Sal into the street on purpose." Miranda's mother straightened out the whole mess, "and by the following week, the police had dropped the whole thing..." In the same chapter, Miranda went to Annemarie's birthday party, which had "two cakes, an awful one that Julia and I made for her and a really good one her dad made." In other news, "Sal's cast came off and he started playing basketball in the alley again."

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead (2)

Answer: Angel

This is in the chapter entitled "White Things" and was the first time Miranda asked Annemarie over to her apartment. "'Angel!' the Laughing Man called out. He was looking right at Annemarie, and I couldn't help thinking that, depending on your idea of heaven, Annemarie might appear to be something like an angel. Her coat was pure white and went all the way down to her toes, even though it was the middle of November and really not all that cold."

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" (3) by Rebecca Stead

Answer: Julia

On the first day back at school after the New Year, Miranda finds herself completely bored by an assembly, so she starts watching her classmates. While Annemarie concentrates on the assembly, Julia--who's clearly just as bored as Miranda--keeps looking over at Annemarie. That led to the following revelation: "Julia cared about Annemarie, but Annemarie didn't see it. Because I was standing in the way." In an earlier chapter, Annemarie told Miranda that she thought the rose had come from Colin. Miranda, who likes him and desires him for herself, suggested to Annemarie that maybe her dad left the rose to cheer her up. Alice is a classmate who's "too shy to admit when she had to go to the bathroom." The other answer choice, Jay, is the name of the class genius.

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead (2)

Answer: $2 bills

Jimmy is the store owner that Annemarie, Colin and Miranda work for for a few months. Jimmy owns a Flintstones Bank, which is off limits to his three helpers. One day, though, Colin determines to open it-and Miranda is just as curious. Annemarie, who tries at first to convince them not to, winds up being the lookout.

From Quiz "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead

Answer: Richard

He gives her a set of ropes for Christmas and gives her lessons in making different knots. "Now I can make every knot he knows, even the clove hitch, which I did backward for a few months before I got it right."

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