THIS AGAIN?

A middle schooler runs for class president with help from an unusual campaign adviser—his future self.

Readers with overachieving older sibs will feel for Noah Nicholson, who’s obsessed with following in the footsteps of his valedictorian older brother, now a Harvard freshman, although Noah’s at best an average student. Also, despite strenuous campaigning, he hasn’t a prayer of winning the upcoming class president election—until, that is, a shocking meeting with his doppelgänger. Future Noah informs him that, thanks to the time machine their brilliant scientist parents are about to whip up, he’s come back from next week and can guide him to victory—if present-day Noah follows certain instructions to the letter. Though odd, those instructions prove so bizarrely effective in earning him support from the in crowd that he barely notices that he’s failing math and alienating longtime friends. But just before everything collapses in one massively humiliating tangle, Noah (rightly) begins to suspect that his future self is hiding something. The author delivers the ensuing round of confessions, revelations, and frank self-analysis with a heavy hand, but all of this does leave Noah able to embrace his own distinctive mix of qualities and abilities and mend the personal and academic fences he’s heedlessly trampled. López draws expressive faces, allowing characterization to come through clearly in the illustrations. Noah and his family present white; there is ethnic diversity among supporting characters.

A bit heavy on lessons, but readers will have fun getting there.