Right Back at You

From the award-winning, bestselling author of Not If I Can Help It, a story about reaching across time to find the support you need against bullies, bad friends, and antisemitism.

Mason lives in 2023. His parents have just split up, and there’s a guy at school who won’t get off his case. As part of an assignment, he writes a letter to Albert Einstein and it ends up getting a little too personal. He throws the letter into his closet...

...and the next day he gets a letter back from a girl named Talia, who lives in 1987. She has problems of her own, including classmates who make jokes because she’s Jewish. She thought her friends would have her back. But it ends up the only person she really has to talk to is... a random boy from the future?

In the tradition of such beloved novels as When You Reach Me and Save Me a Seat, Carolyn Mackler has written a funny, all-too-relatable story about finding the friend you need... even if that friends happens to live in another year.

Carolyn Mackler is the author of the popular teen novels, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (A Michael L. Printz Honor Book); Tangled; Guyaholic; Vegan Virgin Valentine; and Love and Other Four-Letter Words. Carolyn’s most recent novel, The Future of Us, cowritten with bestselling author Jay Asher, has received starred reviews, and the film rights have been sold to Warner Brothers. Best Friend Next Door is her first novel for a younger audience.