The First State of Being

A FINALIST FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD Michael Rosario, a twelve-year-old Filipino boy living with his single mother in an apartment complex in Delaware, meets a mysterious boy from the future in this suspenseful stand-alone novel by the award-winning and bestselling Erin Entrada Kelly. For fans of Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me. It's August 1999. For twelve-year-old Michael Rosario, life at Fox Run Apartments in Red Knot, Delaware, is as ordinary as ever—except for the looming Y2K crisis and his overwhelming crush on his fifteen-year-old babysitter, Gibby. But when a disoriented teenage boy named Ridge appears out of nowhere, Michael discovers there is more to life than stockpiling supplies and pining over Gibby. It turns out that Ridge is carefree, confident, and bold, things Michael wishes he could be. Unlike Michael, however, Ridge isn’t where he belongs. When Ridge reveals that he’s the world’s first time-traveler, Michael and Gibby are stunned, but curious. As Ridge immer