Forward Me Back to You

February 11, 2019
Perkins’s latest follows alternating protagonists: brown-skinned Kat, a superhero-obsessed, tough-as-nails regional jiujitsu champion and California girl with a single, white-skinned mother; and India-born superhero enthusiast Robin, adopted by wealthy white parents in Boston. After Kat fights off an attempted sexual assault by a popular athlete at school, her mother sends her east to stay with a family friend’s great-aunt, Grandma Vee. Kat is angry at the world (at her mom for sending her away, at the “wolf” who attacked her), but when Grandma Vee asks Kat to visit with her friend Robin at her Christian church’s youth group, she reluctantly complies. Soon, Kat gets pulled into a trip to fight human trafficking and serve victims in Kolkata—Robin’s birthplace. While in India, Robin takes on his birth name, Ravi, and the two face their demons, meet family, make friends, and find the best inside themselves called upon. In fast-moving prose that is layered with emotion—rage, grief, dismay, hope, vulnerability, love—Perkins’s novel pulses with heart and questions of identity as well as talk of faith, prayer, God, and social justice. Ages 14–up.

March 1, 2019
A summer church trip to Kolkata allows two American teens to serve, grow, and heal their own suffering in unexpected ways.Katina King is a 16-year-old Brazilian jujitsu champion, a scholarship student at an elite Oakland school, and the brown-skinned, biracial daughter of a single white mother. After a male student assaults her, Kat's anxiety, rage, and anguish disrupt her focus on winning matches and applying to college. Eighteen-year-old Robin Thornton was adopted as a toddler from an Indian orphanage by wealthy white Bostonians. He can't seem to find true belonging or be more than a rudderless sidekick to his white jock friend.When Kat's mother sends her to Boston for a break from Oakland, the teens meet, traveling to Kolkata with their pastor to work with survivors of child trafficking. Kat decides to teach the young women how to fight while Robin, now going by Ravi, hopes to find his birth mother. But they learn the hard way that they must first earn the trust and respect of those they serve and that service may be very different from what they imagine. Perkins (You Bring the Distant Near, 2017, etc.) celebrates Christian faith, superheroes, and Kolkata life through the interleaved perspectives of sympathetic and earnest protagonists and in simple language that speaks straight to the heart.A hymn to faith, friendship, and social justice, sung by gentle men and strong women of many colors and ages. (Fiction. 14-adult)

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Starred review from May 17, 2019

Gr 9 Up-Interweaving the stories of two teens from differing socioeconomic backgrounds, this novel authentically depicts the stark realities of confronting trauma and navigating self-discovery. Sixteen-year-old Katina King is a Brazilian jujitsu champion and scholarship student who attends a prep school in Oakland, and is emotionally struggling in the aftermath of a sexual assault. Thinking that her biracial identity marks her as Other in her school, Katina feels unsupported by her peers as she processes her trauma. Eighteen-year-old Robin Thornton was adopted from a Bengali orphanage by two wealthy white Americans but can't seem to find his place in their world. Beyond his love of cars and superhero films, Robin does not connect much with anyone or anything around him. Hoping that a change of environment will heal Kat, her mother sends her to Boston to finish out the rest of the school year. There she befriends Robin at a Christian youth group where both teens decide to travel with their pastor to Kolkata during summer break to work with young survivors of human trafficking. Kat hopes to teach the young women martial arts and empower them to fight back and Robin (who shifts back to his birth name, Ravi) searches for his birth mother. Simple prose belies complex themes around faith, service, personal identity, and trauma, and Perkins adroitly threads carefully balanced perspectives throughout the story and draws readers' attention to cultural bias. VERDICT This timely, realistic story filled with lots of heart yet devoid of a pat ending is sure to capture readers' interests and spark contemplative conversations around global issues and activism. A must-have for teen and new adult collections.-Lalitha Nataraj, Escondido Public Library, CA

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2019
Grades 9-12 A budding romance, a richly evoked setting, and beautiful intergenerational relationships pepper this story set half in Boston, half in Kolkata, about teens on a church-sponsored trip to assist an anti-human trafficking organization. This is a surprisingly sweet and delicately plotted novel. Kat, a multiethnic California transplant, is finishing her junior year in Boston after experiencing trauma. Indian-born, adopted Robin, whose parents are white, is struggling to reconcile his desi identity. His lifelong friend, Mexican American Gracie, harbors a deep crush and secrets of her own. The teens set foot in Kolkata with heroic aspirations?Kat intends to teach martial arts, and Robin has a plan to track down his birth mother?but quickly their weeks in India become more about growing as people through hard work, vulnerability, and trust. Perkins' present-tense prose and the use of stage direction-like notations about scene locations work to give the book an ethereal tone, which is in dreamy contrast to the grit and sadness that the characters endure and is more reflective of the overall message of hope, connectedness, and love.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)