The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
Published by Simon and Schuster, 2012.

It’s 1996. Very few people have used the Internet and Facebook means absolutely nothing.

Lifelong friends, Josh and Emma, are thrown slightly off balance by confusing romantic thoughts about each other.

When Emma gets a new computer complete with an AOL CD they power up the computer and are catapulted onto Facebook fiteen years ahead.

There is an underlying serious message that even at this age both teens can be influential for the future. Josh and Emma find themselves pondering who they are, how they might make a change and how they might shape their future and the future of others.

References to cassette tapes, camera film and dial up Internet access pose no comprehension problems for today’s fortysomethings but this is a whole other vocabulary for today’s teens. Alternating first-person narratives engage the reader from the very first page and both authors are no strangers to their young adult audience.

The Future of Us is an ideal light hearted summer read from the author of The Earth, My Butt and Other Round Things (Carolyn Mackler) and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jane Asher.