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''When You Reach Me'' is a Newbery Medal-winning science fiction and mystery novel by Rebecca Stead, published in 2009. It takes place in the Upper West Side in New York during 1978 and 1979 and follows the protagonist, Miranda Sinclair. She receives a strange note asking her to record future events and write down the location of her spare key. As the novel progresses, Miranda receives three more notes with requests. The novel contains three storylines — the appearance of Miranda's mom on the game show, ''The $20,000 Pyramid'', Miranda's best friend Sal suddenly not talking with Miranda, and the appearance of a laughing man. Central themes in the novel include independence, redemption and friendship. Stead also wanted to demonstrate the possibilities that she saw in time travel. The author hoped to show her children what New York was like in her childhood, and demonstrate how in an earlier time children were more independent. ''When You Reach Me'' was inspired by a newspaper article about a man suffering from amnesia, and by parts of her childhood and her favorite book, ''A Wrinkle in Time''. After completing much of the novel, Stead gave the draft to her editor, Wendy Lamb, who liked it. They expanded on the initial concepts and published ''When You Reach Me'' on July 14, 2009, under Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House. The book was well received by critics, who praised its realistic setting and the author's deft handling of small details. The novel has reached the best-seller lists of ''The New York Times'', ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''USA Today''. In addition to receiving the 2010 Newbery Medal, ''When You Reach Me'' won several Best Book of the Year awards. ==Concept and development== The two main characters are Miranda, and the laughing man. Stead began writing ''When You Reach Me'' in 2007 after reading an article in ''The New York Times'' gave her an idea for a novel about traveling in time to save someone's life. The article was about a man who woke up in Denver suffering from amnesia, having forgotten who he was or why he was there.〔 Many people worked with the man to help him regain his memory. Under hypnosis, he spoke about his apparent wife, Penny, and two daughters who died in a car crash. However, when he and Penny reunited, the man found out she was only his fiancée — and they had no children. Upon reading this, Stead wondered if somehow the man had returned to the past to prevent an accident but lost his memory along the way.〔 In addition, the article reminded Stead of a strange old man, called the 'laughing man', who lived near her house as a child.〔 While the news story initially inspired Stead, she also tied in parts of her childhood into the novel. Besides the laughing man, she included her primary school, her apartment and a sandwich store where she used to work. Stead also added memories of herself acting mean without reason. Slowly the novel became "more and more about these ordinary mysteries of life and less about the fantastic time-travel-y one".〔 After developing the basic idea, Stead began researching the science behind time travel to make sure her ideas would be logical. She asked her father for help with the science and complicated technical aspects, since he enjoyed mathematical puzzles. As they talked about time travel, Stead "just kept falling into the same hole with the logic, and he really helped me straighten it out".〔 When Stead was only halfway done, she hit a wall: she wondered if she had focused the novel too much on her own personal life and problems. By her 40th birthday in January 2008, she had stopped writing. One week after her birthday celebration, Stead went to a writers' conference where the presenter advised attendees to stop thinking and just write. This speech worked as an antidote to Stead's writer's block; she started working on ''When You Reach Me'' again.〔 After she had written two-thirds of the novel, Stead sent the draft to her editor Wendy Lamb at Random House. Perusing the script, Lamb found herself absorbed and wanted to help develop the book. Unlike Stead's debut novel ''First Light'', which Lamb heavily edited, Lamb modified nothing on the first draft of ''When You Reach Me.'' Throughout the process, Stead helped Lamb understand the complicated concepts in the book and had drafts read by others to make sure "revision hadn't created any holes or contradictions in the plot". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「When You Reach Me」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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