*Winner of the South Asia Book Award!*
*School Library Journal Best Book of 2019!*
*Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2019!*
*A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Pick!*
*An Amelia Bloomer Top Ten Feminist Book!*
*An ALA Rise List Pick!*
*A Junior Library Guild Selection!*
"The third-person narrative perspective is as accessible as it is literary. Perkins, who was born in Kolkata, India, knows how to write fiction about serious issues such as trauma, healing, identity, cross-cultural service, and social justice. Her inclusive, diverse characters leap off the page with distinctiveness and relatability. Unique and refreshing." —VOYA, starred review
"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. 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." —School Library Journal: XpressReviews, starred review
"Mitali Perkins (You Bring the Distant Near) expertly explores personal identity, faith, trauma and ethnocentrism, cleverly using a dual narrative to depict Kat's and Robin's individual points of view. Perkins also uses the teens' experience in Kolkata to highlight the way many view service when done in cultures other than their own. Forward Me Back to You respectfully tackles heavy issues with a poignant, honest and refreshing outlook. —Shelf Awareness, starred review
"A budding romance, a richly evoked setting, and beautiful intergenerational relationships pepper this story . . . a surprisingly sweet and delicately plotted novel . . . Perkins' present-tense prose and the use of stage direction–like notations about scene locations work to give the book an ethereal tone, a dreamy contrast to the grit and sadness that the characters endure, and more reflective of the overall message of hope, connectedness, and love."
—Booklist
"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." —Publishers Weekly
"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." —Kirkus Reviews
"What both protagonists face as survivors of different traumas are thoughtfully represented in Perkins’ considerations of a setting where adoption and sex trafficking go hand-and-hand and in her convincingly reflective teenage perspectives." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
2019-02-17
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)
