GETTING TO KNOW MARISA REICHARDT

Marisa Reichardt had no idea in 2018 that a pandemic would so alter the world and spur scientists to develop a vaccine in record time when she decided to write a young adult novel centered around a teen fighting for the right to be vaccinated.

Now, of course, she seems almost clairvoyant because of the subject of her new book, “A Shot at Normal,” out this month. But the Coronado High School grad is as stunned about the timing as you are.

“To say that that’s surreal is selling it short,” she said on the Name Drop San Diego podcast. “It’s bizarre.”

Instead of the coronavirus, the book was inspired by Reichardt seeing parents on Facebook talking about not vaccinating their kids, and the thoughts that followed about what it may be like for their children growing up. In 2019, when she wrote the draft, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that measles cases in the U.S. were the highest since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000.

She turned in the major draft of the book just as California was going into lockdown mode in March 2020. It’s her third book,

following 2020’s “Aftershocks” and 2017’s “Underwater.” Reichardt did a short reading of the book and an interview on this episode of the Name Drop San Diego podcast.

Read excerpts here or listen to the full episode in your favorite listening app. On her latest book: The book is called “A Shot at Normal” and it’s [in the genre] Young Adult Contemporary and the story focuses around 16year-old Juniper Jade who — after contracting the measles — sues her parents for the right to be vaccinated. Her parents are anti-vaxxers. She’s had no vaccinations, and this is now her mission. With the help of a boy she meets at the library, who might be more than a friend, she arms herself with an attorney and takes her parents to court.

On telling a teenager’s point of view on vaccinations:

I think that we sell teenagers short on a lot of things and think that they’re too young to be able to make decisions about their own bodies and their own health. We sell women short on that. I think we have a problem with that in many areas of health care in our country. So really, I feel like if I can be a voice in any way for teenagers who feel sold short and don’t have a voice, I’m here for that . ... I think this generation is so engaged and they have the resources with social media so they can really get the word out about their causes and what they’re fighting for. I’m just endlessly, endlessly impressed with the work that teenagers are able to do.

On what drives her writing:

I write books to try to answer questions. There’s this idea that’s out there, like, oh, write what you know. I don’t write what I know, I write what I want to try to figure out. And this was very much inspired by: What does the future look like?

Because I was seeing people on my Facebook feed that were not vaccinating their children and I was looking at my daughter, who, at the time was a ninth-grader, and thinking, wow, what would that look like now, where I know how much she wants to be in school and having this experience and, what happens when you make those choices for your children and it affects social things that they might be able to do in the future, anything from sleep away camp to going to public school?