Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly (Those Kids from Fawn Creek; Hello, Universe) 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.
Twelve-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 boy named Ridge, half Filipino like Michael, who has traveled from 2199 to see 1999. "The Backstreet Boys! Britney Spears!... I wanted to see it. All of it. Especially the mall." Michael, together with his 15-year-old babysitter (and crush), Gibby, lead Ridge on a tour of their year, letting him roam the mall and play with the microwave while they delicately pluck tidbits about the future from him (almost no one gets sick; humans can get artificial upgrades). Ridge refuses, however, to discuss Y2K, or to let anyone read his sumbook, a 22nd-century text summarizing history. When Ridge finally tries to return home, the time machine won't communicate with the receiver in 2199. The trio must blindly hope that Ridge's family is fixing the receiver--and that he hasn't catastrophically altered time--because Ridge, susceptible to late-20th-century diseases, is ailing. Still, despite increasing dangers, Michael plots to read that sumbook. Maybe, he thinks, by learning everything about the future, he won't ever feel anxious again.
Kelly has written one of the kindest boys in children's literature: Michael thinks first of others, especially his mom who works three jobs, yet he is weighed down by his uneasy mind and wavering self-worth. Ridge reassures Michael with precepts from the future, like the Conklin Principle ("for every bad outcome you can anticipate... consider at least one positive outcome") and 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." Throughout, Kelly touches on grief and guilt, but also on fulfilling friendships and stomach-fizzing moments of young love. Audio transcripts from Ridge's family and excerpts from the sumbook tie cleverly into the story. The First State of Being is tremendously touching--a fantastic and upliftingly fun read. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer
Shelf Talker: A teen time traveler from 2199 visits 1999 and befriends an endearing, anxious tween boy in this wholesome and splendidly entertaining middle-grade novel about embracing the unknown.