Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
Right Back at You (Scholastic Press, 2025) by Carolyn Mackler was so good and had a surprising ending. I enjoyed it immensely.
It’s 2023, and 12-year-old Mason’s parents have split up, plus he’s being bullied at school, partially about his dad leaving. Mason says his life, “sucks” and is the equivalent of a “black hole.” Told to write a letter about his troubles to someone, Mason chooses Albert Einstein. Embarrassed by what he wrote, Mason throws it in his closet, but when he decides to destroy it, the letter is missing. In it’s place is a letter from a girl named Talia who claims it’s 1987.
Talia is also 12 and has troubles of her own–her best friend ditching her and a boy at school teasing her about being Jewish. How did Mason get a letter in her closet?! Especially since he says he lives in New York and she lives in Pennsylvania…
The book is a National Jewish Book Award Finalist and a Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable Book.
Carolyn writes both middle grade and young adult books. Read about the award-winning author here. And here’s an interview with Carolyn about this book.
The first, Airball, My Life in Briefs (Roaring Brook Press, 2005) gives us the voice of Kirby Nickel loud and clear. Kirby’s town loves basketball so much they are the self proclaimed Baseball Capital of Kansas. Kirby loves the sport, too. However, he can’t play and definitely doesn’t want to humiliate himself by trying. But when the 7th grade team will get the chance to meet homegrown celebrity 6 foot 9 inch NBA start Brett McGrew, Kirby has to go out for the team.
The second, out of patience (Delacourte, 2006) by Brian Meehl reminds me a lot of Holes by Louis Sacher. I suppose it’s a combination of the humor and the back and forth between the present and the past and how what happened then affects now. It’s a story about friends and family, a small town, and what you believe.