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 friend happens to live in another year.

Praise

“Mackler moves the plot along swiftly and satisfyingly as the resourceful...protagonists use the time difference to encourage each other to move beyond their comfort zones.”
— Publishers Weekly

“An absorbing introduction to the paradoxes and possibilities of time travel.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“In dueling messages that are sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious, Carolyn Mackler takes us across five decades as two irrepressible characters stand up to very different kinds of bullying. You’ll laugh, you’ll cheer. But mostly, you won’t be able to put this one down.”
— Gordon Korman, New York Times bestselling author

“Right Back at You is an absolute delight—with unexpected friendships, two kids who refuse to shy away from the truth, and a twist you won’t see coming. I loved every second of it.”
— Fiona Rosenbloom, author of You Are SO Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah!