What We’re Reading producer Tammy Bobrowsky and Tracy Kampa, children's librarian at the Grand Rapids Area Library dive into Erin Entrada Kelly’s The First State of Being in their latest mini book conversation. This is a great story for young and old alike.
This conversation has been edited for clarity.
Tammy: The book we have read is Erin Entrada Kelly’s The First State of Being, which this January, won the Newbery Medal. Tracy, you picked this book out before it won the Newbery Medal—isn’t that right?
Tracy: Thank you. I did. I thought it was fabulous.
Tammy: So we're in an interesting predicament here because there's really not a whole lot we want to tell you about this book, because there's just so many great things that happen in it that we don't want to spoil. So, Tracy, how would we best describe this book for to-be readers?
Tracy: Let's start with a bit of a summary--here's what I'd like you to know: Michael is a 12 year-old living with his mom in an apartment complex in 1999. The Y2K crisis is looming, and Michael is desperately trying to prepare for what may be the end of the world. He gathers canned foods and stashes it under his bed in the hopes that he can keep his small family going. His 16 year-old neighbor Gibby watches Michael on some days when his mom is at work. Michael loves spending time with Gibby and might have a bit of a crush on her. But of course, Michael doesn't need a babysitter.
Also important to Michael is the apartment complex’s maintenance man Mr. Mosley, who frequently has lunch with Michael, sharing sandwiches and talking about anything that might happen to come up. On Michael's birthday, as Mr. Mosley is trying to give Michael $20 as a gift and Michael is trying to decline--although that money could buy a lot of canned peaches, his mom's favorite, when Y2K wreaks havoc upon the world; or he could use the money to pay for the peaches he just stole--Michael and Mr. Mosley are approached by a teen boy who is wearing odd clothing. He introduces himself as Ridge and asks the date. When he hears the year, he is visibly startled. Soon, Michael and Gibby befriend Ridge and Ridge tells them his truth: that he's from the future. How he got to this place and if and how he'll get back, frame a story of friendship, time travel and a whole lot of self-discovery across time. So, Tammy, what did you think?
Tammy: This was such a fun book to read and just really well-crafted because there are so many elements that you're going to pick up on throughout the story and then it's going to kind of all come together at the end and then you're going to want to go back and reread parts of it to see how they all hooked up again!
Tracy: It is outstanding the way they all come together in the end and you're going ‘What?!? Oh, my gosh, I never saw that one coming!’ One thing that I loved about this book, and I don't love about a lot of books, is that Erin Entrada Kelly has one character who intentionally was set up to be the nemesis. Everybody else you can like. You know, you cheer for them, and you hope it all goes well. And it reminded me about Beverly Cleary writing books because I think virtually every character that Beverly Cleary ever wrote you could like and she always stated that she wrote for her readers. She wrote for the average kid down the block she was trying to tell their story. And I was thinking about her and I was thinking that this would have made a great Cleary book. Both Beverly Cleary and Erin Entrada Kelly have a knack for writing characters, and I think that's what really stands out-- how these characters, even though they might have different goals, you can like them all.
Tammy: Right. Michael is just a great character. He's our main character, he's sensitive and smart and worrisome, but in a way that I think a lot of kids are--the way he's planning and worrying about Y2K, worrying about his mom, stockpiling his horde for what he thinks is going to be a disaster and a lot of us were pretty unsure about that time, so it's really relatable.
Tracy: I also think it's probably worth noting that this book was set in 1999, which is now considered historical fiction, and I think many of our listeners maybe weren't even around for Y2K or we're very young. But here was the problem: They call it the Y2K problem because before we turned to the year 2000 all computers only had two places for the year within their operating systems, well, once you get to 99, the next year you go to 00 or 01 and they didn't know if the computers could handle that because it would always be like going back in time. And we heard lots and lots of doomsday things that were going to happen--all of the grids were going to go off and none of the money was going to work anymore because the banks would fail. None of that happened, however, but that was the Y2K problem.
Tammy: I thought if this book had any fault, I was a little surprised at how advanced some of the content was for middle grade readers, as far as some of the scientific things in the book. There was some content that I thought was maybe more technical and more science-y than literature.
Tracy: Absolutely. And I think we can tell everybody that Ridge when he comes to 1999, he's coming from the year 2199 and he essentially brings a guidebook with him that tells him what slang to use in 1999. And what a mall might look like--he was very excited about malls and microwaves when he came to 1999. The thing I like about all the technical pieces, though, is that essentially they pulled them out, you know? I know a lot of kids in that age group who are very technically minded and would eat that up. But even the kids who aren’t could just skim over that and keep going. So I think that was a good way of handling it.
Tammy: I did pull out a quote because I know we like to do that, and I bet you have one too. My favorite quote is much later into the book. Michael is realizing that everyone makes mistakes. Both he and Ridge had been belaboring over some mistakes that they made and he says to Ridge, “Everyone makes mistakes. It doesn't mean you deserve only bad things.” And that is so important--learning to forgive yourself for making mistakes. That was kind of a big moment for me when he finally realizes that he’s not a bad person for making mistakes. He's telling this to Ridge. But Ridge also reminds him of this later. So I thought that was a nice moment.
Tracy: Absolutely. I also really appreciated another quote that Ridge said about history.
He said, “I know it doesn't seem glamorous or interesting to you right now, but that's because no one realizes they’re living history every minute of every day. Sure, there are big moments like the first black president or the first trip to Mars and Jupiter or the first STM. But the truth is we're making history at this very moment. Sitting on this couch together, every breath we take, we're contributing to history.”
I thought that was a wonderful way to bring a sense of self into this book and it made me sit back and realize, ‘I guess that's what we're doing.’
Tammy: Yeah, and it works with the title of the book, “the first state of being” is interpreted as living life right here, right now, being in the moment. So that's a great message there. It sounds like this is a big hit for both of us. What do you think, Tracy?
Tracy: I loved it very much. I've listened to it twice and I read it once and I loved each and every time, and I would highly encourage you to pick it up and to read it. I think anybody would love this story, whether you are a very old librarian or you are a young third grader.
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