Goodbye Stranger is a 2015 young adult realistic fiction novel written by Rebecca Stead that details the social and personal challenges facing modern middle school students.

Bridget "Bridge" Barsamian (who draws a three-eyed Martian) was involved in a serious accident and missed her third grade year while in the hospital; she starts hanging out with Sherm Russo, another seventh grader in Tech Crew, the school's stagehand organization.

Emily "Em" (no surname given, who draws a spotted snake) is athletic and is starting to attract attention from boys.

"[1] Bridge wears cat ears because of a chance encounter Stead had with a stranger in the street: "The idea came from a girl.

"[2] Meg Wolitzer, reviewing for The New York Times, said the novel "sensitively explores togetherness, aloneness, betrayal and love" and the second storyline "succeeds as a cautionary tale that signals what may lie ahead for the younger girls.