When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead

When You Reach Me by: Rebecca Stead is the novel I read for the realistic fiction genre.   The book is like a mystery and it is confusing, in the end I still did not really know what happened.  Someone finds the key to Miranda's house and writes her three letters with instructions and clues.  The whole book is the letter that Miranda is writing to this mysterious person, it is full of detail of the events that happened in her life during that time.  By the end of the book the readers find out who wrote the three letters to Miranda and she finds out who she is supposed to give her letter to, I think.

Since When You Reach Me is such a confusing book you would have to read it with older students, probably like fifth grade.  In order to help students understand what is going on in the book I would have them take guided notes to go along with the reading.  We will fill out characters, settings, details, and other things that are going on in the book.  That way by the end of the book students may not be confused like I was.