By Sarah Everett
New York: Clarion Books, 2023. Fiction. 326 pages.
11-year-old Nigerian American Kemi is something of a scientist. She loves learning about math and science and for her, knowing the probability that something will happen gives her great peace. Except there are only four days left until the end of the world. An asteroid is on course to collide with Earth and there is an 84.7% chance that the world will be destroyed. Remarkably calm in the face of calamity, Kemi decides to create a time capsule and she begins to collect the most important things that belong to her family hoping that their memory will survive after they're gone. She is especially stumped trying to help her dad find the perfect thing, he had recently left his time consuming job to find his real passion and the family move to a predominately white neighborhood has caused friction with some unwelcoming neighbors. As the end of the world comes closer and closer, it seems like Kemi is the only one taking the impending catastrophe seriously and she is running out of time to finish her time capsule. Just before disaster happens, a huge plot twist throws the story in an unexpected direction.
It's hard to talk about what makes this book great other than saying "there's a twist." Astute readers will start to grow suspicious of a potential twist early on -- there are some things that don't add up. But the journey to get there is so, so sweet. Kemi is an awesome protagonist, both tough and sensitive and conscientious of the world around her. Her family, who we get to know through the objects they add to the time capsule, are well-developed characters who act as a good support network for Kemi and her younger sister. Gut-wrenching and unflinching, this is a surprisingly realistic novel for tweens.
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