When You Reach Me: Things in an Elevator—Parting Gifts

by Rebecca Stead
After a fight with her best friend, Miranda starts receiving mysterious letters from a person who can predict the future — and who warns Miranda that someone is going to die.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4

Here are links to our lists for other works by Rebecca Stead: Liar & Spy, Goodbye Stranger
15 words 62 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. deliberately
    with intention; in an intentional manner
    I was sort of deliberately trying to weird myself out, I think, to get my energy up.
  2. awning
    a canvas canopy to shelter people or things from rain or sun
    I walked up the hill, where the sunlight seemed to touch everything like it was a hyper kid running all over a toy store—it bounced off the dirty metal lampposts, the shiny brass awning posts, even the sunglasses of a woman walking her dogs with a cup of coffee in one hand.
  3. origami
    the art of folding paper
    And then her mom showed us how to make origami frogs, and I was actually good at it.
  4. sheer
    complete and without restriction
    I stared at the back of it for a while, trying to see if I could make him turn around with the sheer power of my brain waves, but it was hard to concentrate with Alice doing a Mexican hat dance in her chair.
  5. racket
    a loud and disturbing noise
    Colin and Sal were in the lobby, making a total racket with the skateboard and the basketball so that any second Mrs. Bindocker would probably come charging out of her apartment, yelling that they were scaring her cat.
  6. supervise
    watch and direct
    Mom said we couldn’t light the oven until Julia’s mother came out to supervise us, so we put our clumped-together cake batter in the fridge and went to Julia’s room to watch television.
  7. splay
    widen or spread apart
    And books all over the floor, some stacked in piles, some worn-looking, some brand-new, some splayed upside down, some sliding off the pink bedside table next to the lamp with the orange fabric shade.
  8. terse
    brief and to the point
    My apologies for the terse instructions.
  9. brittle
    having little elasticity
    I fingered the notes, so small and brittle.
  10. rave
    talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner
    Difficult enough to scramble a person's mind and leave him raving on a street corner?
  11. anesthesia
    loss of bodily sensation
    And the dentist called his own stuff through the door, about anesthesia and paste-drying time, and only having two hands.
  12. allegation
    a formal accusation against somebody
    We can use the principal’s office for a few minutes so that you can brief me about whatever allegations have been made.
  13. podium
    a platform raised above the surrounding level
    Dick Clark’s podium is there, and the word screens that swivel back and forth during the speed round, and two empty chairs facing each other in the Winner’s Circle.
  14. amateur
    someone who pursues a study or sport as a pastime
    The other contestant is good, but his celebrity speaks too slowly and says the word bat while giving clues for the word batter, an amateur’s mistake.
  15. mite
    small arachnid that infests animals, plants, or stored foods
    I personally do not care about wall-to-wall carpeting. Louisa says carpets are full of dust mites anyway.
Created on Wed Jun 25 12:43:42 EDT 2025 (updated Wed Jun 25 12:52:44 EDT 2025)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.