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Review: Right Back at You

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By Carolyn Mackler
New York: Scholastic Press, 2025. Fiction. 226 pages.

At the suggestion of his therapist, Mason wrote a letter to Albert Einstein about his life and promptly hid it in his closet. The next day when he goes to retrieve and toss the letter, he finds a different one in its place. This letter was written by Talia, a girl who was twelve almost 40 years ago and she's confused about how someone from the future put a letter in her closet and about what "googling" means. Both twelve-year-olds are dealing with bullying at their school and parents who don't know how to help them. By conversing, they are able to find confidence and strength to stand up to their bullies and to open up to their parents.

This epistolary novel is a quick and engaging read. It alternates between letters from Mason and Talia, which feel very journal-like as they slowly open up to each other. I feel like this book does a good job balancing the idea that kids should tell their parents when they're being picked on at school, but how sometimes they'll also need to stand up for themselves. Talia, specifically, is bullied because she's Jewish, and readers will learn along with her as she discovers more about antisemitism and the holocaust.
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