Return to Sender

Gr 3-5–Brosgol makes her prose debut in this lightly illustrated novel of wishes and wanting in New York City. Oliver and his mother end up in an unusual Manhattan apartment after being transient for some time after the death of Oliver’s father, only finding a stable home upon inheriting one from a relative. Oliver is hoping that this time they will get to stay, putting all of his energy into his cooking and fulfilling his father’s dream of opening a restaurant. When he begrudgingly begins attending fifth grade at an exclusive private prep school, he is mortified that he is the only underprivileged student at the tech-forward institution. He constantly finds himself lacking when held up against his wealthy peers. A solution appears, however, in the magical mail slot in his apartment that grants him the brand-new sneakers he desperately wished for to help him fit in at school. Oliver, along with his new friend, precocious and rich Collette, begin to make increasingly fantastic wishes; first to make their own dreams come true, then simply to impress their jaded and unfriendly classmates. They find along the way that their wishes have consequences, and Oliver becomes increasingly uncomfortable with what the wish fulfillment does to his community. The story veers jarringly from lightly magical to full-on science fiction for a portion before returning to reality for the conclusion. Brosgol’s signature illustrations add richness to the story without overwhelming the prose, and appear mostly on partial pages interspersed with numerous pages of full text.