The Future of Us

I may or may not have mentioned this, but one of my absolute favorite young adult books is Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. When I was in my methods classes at SHSU, I had to observe and teach a ninth grade class over the course of the semester. When I was observing, one of the students had that book. I was intrigued by the cove, so I checked it out from the public library. I couldn't put that book down! It's about a girl who kills herself, and gives her reasons why.  What was neat about that book was that it was told from the point of view of the girl who died, as well as the boy who had a crush on her.

So, when I was visiting the school library one day and saw that Jay Asher's new book was a possible TAYSHAS book, I knew I wanted to read it-despite the negative review from one of the library aides. The Future of Us was co-written by Carolyn Mackler, and chronicles nearly a week in the life of Emma and Josh.

The year is 1996.  Emma is a junior in high school, and Josh is a sophomore. They live next door to one another, and have been best friends their whole lives-until six months ago. Lately, their relationship has been strained, but that doesn't keep Josh from bringing Emma an AOL disk with 150 free internet hours when she gets a new computer from her estranged father.

When Emma logs onto AOL, a strange thing happens: she logs into Facebook. Facebook, as you know, did not exist in 1996. Emma can see into the future through her posts on Facebook. She tells Josh, and over the course of the week, they can see how little things they do in their lives in 1996 affect their lives in 2011.

I enjoyed this book, and it will be hitting my classroom shelf when I go in tomorrow.