Friday, November 13, 2009
English 15.3: Rebecca Stead
This post is for my students in English 15.3, Creative Writing for Children.
Dear all,
As you know, Rebecca Stead is coming to our class on Monday to talk about her beautiful novel, When You Reach Me. Please post a question or comment for her here.
Thanks!
Marie
I love this book! Once, the the keys disappeared I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. How did you think of the idea for the story?
This was the first time I read a book over 100 pages in one sitting! I could not stop reading I was so into this story! This book was great, and one thing I always wanted to do is write a mystery novel. Did you already have all the pieces together before you sat down to write, or did you create the story as you went along? The narrator is an amazing and original voice, was it difficult to stay consistant with this voice? Did you find yourself doing a lot of editing as far as the narration?
I loved the book. The first one I picked up and read before anything else (the title caught my eye). The various friendship Miranda forms with Sal, the sudden loss of a close friend but compensated with Colin and Annemarie, the relationship between a daughter and a mother, and the mystery of the notes leaving me to guess who needed to be saved made it exciting and memorable. I loved the every characters, small or big, relationship with Miranda which made them important in my eyes. Each so distinct and real. And Marcus! How did you come up with that complex character? Was he based on a real person?
I really enjoyed reading this book. I thought the voice of Miranda was wonderful but while I was reading it I was wondering a few things. Was the laughing man based on an actual person? Also, what was the relevance of folding the two dollar bills instead of just putting them in the Fred Flintstone bank? Was the broken relationship between Sal and Miranda based on some sort of truth?
I enjoyed reading the book and found the story both fascinating and sad. The interconnectivity between loss and recovery, aging and being young (Miranda and friends), life and death were powerful trinkets surrounding Miranda and her world but these lessons were not preachy at all.
Marcus as the laughing man character was a pleasant surprise and it says something about how we observe others, through Miranda.I learned a lot about character turn outs and was wondering if at any point you thought the laughing man could be Sal. Was Sal the sacrifice that had to be made for Miranda to discover the truth about Marcus?
I love the vague relationship that Miranda has feeling toward Sal. I thought it was cute. I felt piety toward Sal. I felt really close to Miranda character and in her thoughts.
Is Marcus based on a real story?
Who is the laughing man?
who is this mysterious man that is sending letters to Miranda?
At first it was taking me a while to get into the story, but that was because there was a lot of background information being given to us such as the mom, boyfriend, her friend Sal, and etc. One of my favorite parts was when the teacher put Sal’s mat next to her even though he wasn’t there because she understood. I thought that was beautiful especially that my goal is to become a teacher.
I love the mystery provided with the tiny notes that seem to tell the future and also the relationship Miranda has with the people within the book. I also like that the author discusses a book within her own book (A Wrinkle in Time) and how Miranda reads the book over and over.
Miranda as the narrative was wonderful as well as the book itself.
I really loved Miranda’s voice and her character-how observant she is(my favorite was the moment in Annemarie’s building’s elevator on new year’s day) and her thoughtfulness. Each character also felt so real and completely individual that I was imediately drawn in. My main question after reading this novel, is where the idea for writing it came from? It feels like such a unique, but complex plot, that I was left wondering how it was developed.
Wow! This story ws great!! I fell in love with Miranda’s voice, and it kept me hooked for the rest of the story.
Everything about it was great, from the various relationships, to the plot. I enjoyed every second of it. I can’t wait to meet the author behind this wonderful novel.
(So, I definitely read this book in one sitting while the baby napped… I was hooked after the first chapter.)
I think part of what I found striking about this novel was the voice of Miranda—it just felt so honest and real. There were so many instances in the book that reminded me of that time right before adolescence—it was totally sweet and endearing. (I loved the chapter where Miranda is trying to think of life in really grandiose terms in an effort to make her problems feel less important. Really beautiful.) Twelve years old is hard voice to master, imo, because it’s not exactly childhood or adolescence. I’m wondering if Ms. Stead did any research in order to really capture this voice so accurately?
Also, the plot is pretty complex but it’s done in such a way that the reader never gets lost. I guess that’s my question; how did Ms. Stead tackle such a large and complex plot and execute it in such a (relatively) simple manner?
I really enjoyed reading this story. From the begining I found myself going back and forth to read the title of each chapter. I thought the way Stead linked each title to the overall theme of each chapter. I thought she did a great job with that. I did wonder if it w as difficult linking the chapters to their content and overall story? I also wanted to know if it was hard for Stead to write a mystery, because I find them to be very difficult.
i liked this story a lot. It was very dense and creative. It was fun to read and was definitely a hard one to put down. The titles were a really nice touch to the story and each chapter. Was the use of A Wrinkle in Time significant to your personal childhood experiences? Did it play the same role as it did to the character in this book?
As other people have said, the voice was great. I assume that you were a big fan of A Wrinkle in Time yourself. When you were a kid did someone point out the fatal flaw that Marcus noticed?
I agree with my classmates. The voice is fantastic. I really felt a connection with Miranda’s character.I was wondering if your mother was ever a partcipant in Pyramid. Also,in connection with the first question, was your childhood an insiration for the story?