"When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead Quiz

Answer: Miranda's mom's boyfriend

"Mom calls Richard Mr. Perfect because of how he looks and how he knows everything."

His birthday is April 27, the same day Miranda's mom appears on the TV game show, 'The $20,000 Pyramid.' In addition, Richard has been "seeing" Miranda's mom for about two years when the book starts. He's also a lawyer at the office where Miranda's Mom works.

As far as I know, Miranda doesn't have a boyfriend, her friend's name is (or was) Sal, and her classmate's name is Robbie.

Answer: Timer

The timer "can accurately measure a half minute." Miranda's mom bought it after receiving the postcard informing her she was a contestant on the game show. It and the other items are used to help her prepare for the big day-April 27th.

Miranda's mom works at a law firm as a paralegal, receptionist and secretary.

"Richard and I figured out a while ago that the more stuff Mom swipes from the office supply closet, the more she's hating work."

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

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."

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."

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.

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."

Answer: Plenty of heat

Miranda's mom also copies the letter, to be sent to "some city agency that's supposed to care whether we have hot water, if the lobby door locks, and that the elevator door keeps getting stuck between floors. But nothing ever changes"

In addition to the problems mentioned above, "the elevator is dirty, there are cigarette butts on the stairs, and the dryer in the basement melted somebody's elastic-waist pants."

Answer: Weirdo

Miranda's Mom reprimands her daughter for calling him "Quack," which is short for "Quackers". He got that name, as well as Kicker, because he "used to do these sudden kicks into the street, like he was trying to punt one of the cars speeding up Amsterdam Avenue. Sometimes he shook his fist at the sky and yelled crazy stuff like 'Where's the burn scale? Where's the dome?'"

"'Don't call him 'Quack', Mom said. 'That's an awful name for a human being.' 'Well, what do you call him?' 'I don't call him anything,' she said, 'but I think of him as the laughing man.'"

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."