A Celebration of Books,
Writers & LIterary Excellence

Save the Date


Gaithersburg
Book Festival

May 16, 2026

10am – 6pm

Bohrer Park


Carolyn Mackler

Featured Title: Right Back at You
Right Back at You
Right Back At You by Carolyn Mackler

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.

About Carolyn Mackler

Carolyn Mackler is the acclaimed author of the YA novels “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things” (A Michael L. Printz Honor Book), “The Universe Is Expanding and So Am I,” “Infinite in Between,” “Tangled,” “The Future of Us,” “Vegan Virgin Valentine,” “Guyaholic,” and “Love and Other Four-Letter Words,” and the middle-grade novels “Not If I Can Help It” and “Best Friend Next Door.”  Carolyn’s award-winning books have appeared on best-seller lists and been translated into more than 25 languages. Carolyn lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.

Carolyn will be presenting middle-grade novel “Right Back at You.”

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