The First State of Being

When a mysterious teenager named Ridge appears at Michael Rosario’s apartment complex on Michael’s 12th birthday in 1999, Michael believes there’s “something off” about him. Ridge soon reveals he’s from 2199 and, after being goaded by his brothers, used the recently developed, controversial Spatial Teleportation Module to travel back to 1999, his “favorite year in history.” Shy, awkward, and compassionate Michael, who is half Filipino and assumed half white, and only has two friends—his 15-year-old babysitter and crush Gibby, who cues as white, and “brown weathered” Mr. Mosely, the complex’s 62-year-old maintenance man—has been secretly, obsessively stockpiling (and shoplifting) supplies for himself and his loving, hard-working single mother in preparation for the assumed disaster of Y2K. Michael realizes Ridge can tell him if Y2K was indeed a worldwide crisis, but Ridge refuses. As Michael and Gibby indulge Ridge’s fascination with shopping malls and 1999 objects, he develops a previously unknown self-confidence that is well rendered and endearing. Interspersed audio transcripts and textbook excerpts from 2199 provide background for Ridge, and an epilogue reveals a delicious, thought-provoking twist on a question posed early on by Kelly (Those Kids from Fawn Creek): would the disruption of time influence past, present, or future events? Ages 8–12. (Mar.)