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roseleaf24 's review for:
The First State of Being
by Erin Entrada Kelly
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Newbery Medal 2025
This book is one where I wish I still had access to a sample size of middle grade readers. Obviously, it is adults who choose the award winners, and I'm really curious how this would fare among the readers it's aimed at. It is set in 1999, and a teenage genius from 2199 comes back to 1999 because it's , in his opinion, the best year. The first half of the book is diving into these characters and a lot of back and forth explaining the 90s and the future - though as little of that as possible, as he doesn't want to disturb the space-time continuum. I don't know that I would have made it through this portion of the book were it not an award winner. It wasn't bad, it just didn't feel that different than a lot of other books. I found some interest, as I'm just a little older than the teens in 1999, but I don't know if the current generation cares that much about the time period.
The last half of the book got much more interesting and the story got much more unique. The ending had a lot of fun connections and reveals. For me, this isn't the best children's book of the year, but I did enjoy it. The narrator is good, but maybe with the transcripts and the reports from the future, it would have been better to read it in person and glaze over the things that are detailed repeatedly for the record.
This book is one where I wish I still had access to a sample size of middle grade readers. Obviously, it is adults who choose the award winners, and I'm really curious how this would fare among the readers it's aimed at. It is set in 1999, and a teenage genius from 2199 comes back to 1999 because it's , in his opinion, the best year. The first half of the book is diving into these characters and a lot of back and forth explaining the 90s and the future - though as little of that as possible, as he doesn't want to disturb the space-time continuum. I don't know that I would have made it through this portion of the book were it not an award winner. It wasn't bad, it just didn't feel that different than a lot of other books. I found some interest, as I'm just a little older than the teens in 1999, but I don't know if the current generation cares that much about the time period.
The last half of the book got much more interesting and the story got much more unique. The ending had a lot of fun connections and reveals. For me, this isn't the best children's book of the year, but I did enjoy it. The narrator is good, but maybe with the transcripts and the reports from the future, it would have been better to read it in person and glaze over the things that are detailed repeatedly for the record.