A review by anjreading
Forward Me Back to You, by Mitali Perkins

4.0

4.5 stars. Katina is a teen living in L.A. who uses her jujitsu skills to fight off a boy who assaults her at school. Because she successfully defends herself and injures him, the case turns into a “he said, she said” and the boy isn’t punished at all. Kat is badly shaken by the assault and its aftermath, and her mother sends her off to a family friend in Boston to finish out the school year remotely. Kat gets drawn into a church youth group and ends up making two really good friends, and the three of them go to Kolkata, India for the summer to volunteer with a group that helps survivors of human trafficking. The story alternates between Kat and her youth group friend Robin/Ravi, a boy who was adopted from a Kolkata orphanage and is searching for his birth mother on their trip. I loved that this book was about friendship and self-discovery, not a manufactured romance or happily-ever-after in either teen’s life journey.