Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly introduces a tender-hearted tween boy with anxiety who learns to live mindfully from a time traveler in this buoyant and entertaining middle-grade novel (a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and a Kids' Indie Next List title).
In 1999, 12-year-old Michael worries about him and his single mom surviving Y2K, believing the theory that computers will glitch when systems switch to 2000 and shut down the world. But it isn't Y2K that threatens the universe first--it's a 16-year-old visitor named Ridge, half Filipino like Michael, who has traveled back from 2199.
Kelly (Hello, Universe) has written a kind boy who thinks first of others yet is weighed down by his uneasy mind and wavering self-worth. Ridge reassures Michael with precepts from the future, like the idea that staying in "the first state of being" (the here and now) matters more than obsessing over what-ifs. This helps steer Michael toward accepting that "not knowing is part of life." The First State of Being is tremendously touching--a fantastic and upliftingly fun read. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer