Jordan Cobb narrates the approaching-end-of-the world records of 11-year-old Kemi, a Nigerian American whose color puts her at odds in her white neighborhood. Cobb re-creates the warm tenderness of Kemi's family, especially their playful interactions with an exploring toddler and their anticipation of a baby due in five months. Cobb voices Kemi's strength with respect to the impending doom, emphasizing her wit and intelligence as she collects mementos of her family for a time capsule and flees into the comfort zone of probability and statistics that her father has nurtured in her. Nearing the story's end, reality shifts, and Kemi is revealed as an unreliable narrator. Cobb's narration helps listeners bridge these shifts because she has so authentically portrayed Kemi's thoughts and feelings all along. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
A heart-wrenching middle grade debut about Kemi, an aspiring scientist who loves statistics and facts, as she navigates grief and loss at a moment when life as she knows it changes forever.
Eleven-year-old Kemi Carter loves scientific facts, specifically probability. It's how she understands the world and her place in it. Kemi knows her odds of being born were 1 in 5.5 trillion, and that the odds of her having the best family ever were even lower. Yet somehow, Kemi lucked out.
But everything Kemi thought she knew changes when she sees an asteroid hover in the sky, casting a purple haze over her world. Amplus-68 has an 84.7% chance of colliding with earth in four days, and with that collision, Kemi's life as she knows it will end.
But over the course of the four days, even facts don't start to feel true to Kemi anymore. The new town she moved to that was supposed to be “better for her family” isn't very welcoming. And Amplus-68 is taking over her life, but others are still going to school and eating at their favorite diner like nothing has changed. Is Kemi the only one who feels like the world is ending?
With the days numbered, Kemi decides to put together a time capsule that will capture her family's truth: how creative her mother is, how inquisitive her little sister can be, and how much Kemi's whole world revolves around her father. But no time capsule can change the truth behind all of it, that Kemi must face the most inevitable and hardest part of life: saying goodbye.
A stunning portrait of grief, loss, and that moment in life that splits the world into ""before"" and ""after,"" Sarah Everett's middle grade debut is an unforgettable reading experience, from each insightful phrase, all the way to the explosive ending.
A heart-wrenching middle grade debut about Kemi, an aspiring scientist who loves statistics and facts, as she navigates grief and loss at a moment when life as she knows it changes forever.
Eleven-year-old Kemi Carter loves scientific facts, specifically probability. It's how she understands the world and her place in it. Kemi knows her odds of being born were 1 in 5.5 trillion, and that the odds of her having the best family ever were even lower. Yet somehow, Kemi lucked out.
But everything Kemi thought she knew changes when she sees an asteroid hover in the sky, casting a purple haze over her world. Amplus-68 has an 84.7% chance of colliding with earth in four days, and with that collision, Kemi's life as she knows it will end.
But over the course of the four days, even facts don't start to feel true to Kemi anymore. The new town she moved to that was supposed to be “better for her family” isn't very welcoming. And Amplus-68 is taking over her life, but others are still going to school and eating at their favorite diner like nothing has changed. Is Kemi the only one who feels like the world is ending?
With the days numbered, Kemi decides to put together a time capsule that will capture her family's truth: how creative her mother is, how inquisitive her little sister can be, and how much Kemi's whole world revolves around her father. But no time capsule can change the truth behind all of it, that Kemi must face the most inevitable and hardest part of life: saying goodbye.
A stunning portrait of grief, loss, and that moment in life that splits the world into ""before"" and ""after,"" Sarah Everett's middle grade debut is an unforgettable reading experience, from each insightful phrase, all the way to the explosive ending.
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940159787590 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 06/27/2023 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Age Range: | 8 - 11 Years |
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