When You Reach Me Character Analysis

Miranda Sinclair

Twelve-year-old Miranda Sinclair is a sixth-grade latchkey kid growing up in New York City in the 1970s. She lives with Mom in an apartment building on the Upper West Side and has been best friends… read analysis of Miranda Sinclair

Marcus Heilbroner (The Laughing Man)

Marcus Heilbroner is Miranda and Sal’s classmate and neighbor. Dreamy and socially awkward, Marcus is also extremely intelligent and academically gifted. His interests lie in math and theoretical physics. Marcus punches Sal to impress… read analysis of Marcus Heilbroner (The Laughing Man)

Annemarie

Annemarie is Miranda’s classmate and Julia’s longtime best friend. Like Julia, she comes from an affluent family. Unlike Miranda and Julia, she isn’t latchkey kid, since her loving and concerned dad works from… read analysis of Annemarie

Julia

Julia is Miranda’s classmate and Annemarie’s former best friend. Julia is Black, and her family is affluent. Miranda resents what she perceives as Julia’s extreme privilege. But Julia and Miranda share the quality… read analysis of Julia

Mom

Mom is Miranda’s single mother. Her hoped-for career in law was derailed by Miranda’s birth, after which she became a frustrated paralegal. Perhaps because of her thwarted ambitions, Mom adopts a juvenile way of… read analysis of Mom

Richard

Richard is Mom’s boyfriend. German by birth, he is now a lawyer at the law firm where Mom works. He is a kind, friendly man who has developed a close relationship with Miranda… read analysis of Richard

Sal

Sal is the son of Mom’s and Miranda’s downstairs neighbor, Louisa. From infancy, he is Miranda’s best friend. But when Miranda misses a week of school at the beginning of sixth grade… read analysis of Sal

Jimmy

Jimmy is a White man who owns a sandwich shop near Miranda’s school. An odd and unkempt man, he collects $2 bills, which he folds into triangles and stashes in a Fred Flintstone piggy… read analysis of Jimmy

Annemarie’s Dad

Annemarie’s dad is loving and friendly. He works from home as a medical illustrator, in part because this gives him the time and access to oversee Annemarie’s diet—an important consideration given her condition of… read analysis of Annemarie’s Dad

Belle

Belle is the proprietor of a small grocery store in the neighborhood where Mom, Miranda, Sal, Louisa, and Marcus live. A friend of Mom’s and Miranda’s, she lets fusses over Miranda… read analysis of Belle

Wheelie

Wheelie is the name that Miranda and the other students have given to the secretary of their school, because she spends her day scooting around the main office in her wheeled office chair. Wheelie is… read analysis of Wheelie

Alice Evans

Alice Evans is a classmate of Miranda, Annemarie, Julia, and Colin. A shy girl, she always seems to have to use the bathroom while being too timid to admit it aloud… read analysis of Alice Evans

Minor Characters

Colin

Julia is Miranda’s classmate. He works with Miranda, Annemarie, and Julia at Jimmy’s sandwich shop. Miranda and Annemarie both develop crushes on Colin. Toward the end of the novel, Colin kisses Miranda, evidently reciprocating her romantic feelings for him.

Louisa

Louisa is Sal’s mother and Mom’s friend. A nurse who works in a retirement home, she is a single mother trying to make a good life for her son. Like Mom and Miranda, she is loyal and kind.

Dentist

The dentist is a professional who works for the school district and provides services for students at Miranda’s school whose families are too poor to pay private dentists, including Marcus. He appreciates Marcus’s intelligence and helps Miranda protect him from the police.

Mr. Tompkins

Mr. Tompkins is Miranda, Colin, Annemarie, Julia, and Alice Evan’s sixth-grade teacher.

When You Reach Me Characters