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INTERMEDIATE FICTION
Mackler, Carolyn

Right Back at You

240 pp. | Scholastic | March, 2025 | Trade ISBN 9781338734218 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 9781338734249 $17.99
(2) 4-6 Modern-day twelve-year-old Mason begins seeing a therapist to help him deal with the struggles of seventh grade. Things get worse after his father unexpectedly moves away and the tween starts being bullied at school for quitting the baseball team. Mason's therapist suggests he write a letter to someone, anyone, and he chooses Albert Einstein. Though Einstein doesn't write back, Talia, a seventh-grade girl living in 1987, does. So begins their correspondence, which spans many months and the entirety of this fast-paced epistolary novel. The mutual support that forms through their letters helps them face issues of bullying, family difficulties, identity, and, for Talia, sexism. Antisemitism is dealt with at length, from specific accounts of the Holocaust (via a survivor who speaks at Talia's school) to ways it has looked different at various points in history, which will be highly relevant for contemporary readers. Technological changes over the intervening decades feature prominently as well. Weighty issues (also including alcoholism and its impact on families) are handled skillfully, and the narrative takes several unexpected turns that add fun and intrigue despite the overall serious tone.
Reviewer: Miriam Steinberg-Egeth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2025

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