Return to Sender

Gr 3-5–Gr 3-5–Mega-award-winning graphic novelist Brosgol makes her prose debut with a magical, madcap mystery about the consequences of fifth grader Oliver’s wishful thinking. Over the last year since his father passed, Oliver and his mother ran out of places to stay—until Aunt Barb died and left the peripatetic pair her seventh-floor walkup. In the living room, Oliver discovers a mysteriously interactive mail slot that happens to deliver wishes. Miserable in his latest new school—a tony private academy he’s able to attend because of his mother’s custodian job there—Oliver’s requests become exponentially grander with increasing ramifications. Lee is a tireless cipher, imbuing wonderfully distinctive personalities in yearning Oliver, hopeful mother Annie, mischievous new friend Colette, overprotective Jimmy, weasley neighbor Eliza, and bewildered, otherworldly Frank.