Newberry Medal winner Erin Entrada Kelly’s new middle grade novel, “The First State of Being,” is a delightful, thoughtful, and thought-provoking work which explores both the potential problems and fascinating possibilities of time travel. The novel features two young protagonists, both quite brilliant, and both of whom find themselves in situations and locations which reveal their mutual discomfort in new and unfamiliar surroundings.
But despite those situational similarities, the two boys are very different from each other in all sorts of significant ways. Protagonist number one is twelve-year-old Michael Rosario, a charmingly insecure young man who is very bright, very creative, very fearful of events that may occur around Y2K (the year 2000), and very small for his age. Michael has a wonderful mother and an equally wonderful and attractive sixteen-year-old babysitter named Gibby on whom he has a terrific crush. She, too, is charming and smart.
Another important character is the maintenance man for the building in the small town in Delaware in which Michael lives. That gentleman is Mr. Mosley, an older man who is like Michael’s second father. Michael’s dad had died some time before the events of this novel. And finally, we meet Ridge Sabio, protagonist number two. Michael and Mr. Mosley meet Ridge, their strange new maybe-neighbor, at the same time we readers do.
Ridge is the time traveler. He is a sixteen-year-old genius who arrives in Michael’s timeline, 1999, from his own time, 2199, by illegally jumping into and activating the one and only prototype time travel machine that exists on Earth 2199, an act which is strictly prohibited by his scientist mother and the rules and laws of the prevailing scientific community of that era. His plan is to arrive at the precise location at which he resides in HIS time in order to learn exactly what that location felt like, looked like, and lived like two hundred years before his own time. He is successful. He is also lucky. He might, after all, have “landed” inside a wall or buried under concrete, or stuck in a garbage dump about to be crunched into oblivion. Instead, however, he winds up right at the place where he immediately encounters Michael and Mosley. Upon meeting them, he asks them questions which they find puzzling, to say the least:
“Could you tell me the date?”
“It’s August seventeenth.”
“Thank you…. of what year?”
Who the heck doesn’t know what year it is? And matters proceed idiosyncratically (in every sense) from there, as one might suspect. Michael, Gibby, and Mr. Mosley gradually but absolutely come to accept the new reality: not only is time travel possible, but Ridge is, in fact, the first time traveler. Ridge, meanwhile, comes to accept that he has proven to be both destructively naughty and quite stupid, genius label notwithstanding, to have stolen the machine and made the trip primarily because of a jealous dare perpetrated by one of his brothers. Now the whole group has to face and deal with uncomfortable truths — they must find ways to hide the fact that Ridge has travelled through time lest they cause a world-wide panic among 1999 earth citizens due to the simple fact that many people’s most cherished assumed beliefs and existential theories will have been turned upside-down.
Michael himself also learns difficult but valuable lessons. Coming of age, all other problems aside, itself generates new and scary situations regarding personal relationships, dealing, perhaps, with innate shyness, getting to know and appreciate people whose ideas may differ radically from one’s own, and the necessity of carefully thinking through and reacting to strange and even “alien” situations which may be dangerous and potentially life-threatening. And added to all those new and puzzling conflicts are the dilemmas arising from Ridge’s desperate need to get back “home” — to 2199.
And as Ridge finally learns to fully comprehend how foolish he’s been by using his genius to perform an act which could not only ruin his own life but might also change forever the very future from which he has emerged, all the members of that very confused and troubled young group learn of the wisdom of Ridge’s mom as the young man from the future explains her belief that the time that really matters most is the NOW. Putting aside the logic and apparent security of chronology, she says, is a necessity if one is to live a productive life and deal effectively with the problems life invariably throws at us. We and those kids must concentrate on TODAY, on the IMMEDIATE, especially when a desperate situation requires a desperate but wise solution — in this case, a solution for the problem of getting Ridge “back” to his home time line before he ruins — or erases– his own future.
Consider: It’s useless, in a sense, to dwell on the past because (1) ruing or feeling guilty about past behaviors will change or help absolutely nothing, and (2) if by some scientific miracle we do learn how to change the past, we may endanger the very existence of everyone and everything in the present and future — as Ridge finds out to his chagrin. And dwelling obsessively on the future, on the other hand, risks ignoring the far more important and immediate issues and pressures of the present. Furthermore, that obsession will almost surely demonstrate the futility of trying to predict what is to come — unless, of course, we are time travelers like Ridge, whose “predictions” in 1999 are not actually predictions. They’re memories. Concentrating on the NOW, then, is “The First State of Being.”
Considering the many different and often controversial (but fascinating) issues raised by her novel, we should congratulate author Erin Entrada Kelly. She unfolds a narrative that involves us emotionally and intellectually while assiduously avoiding many of the all-too-common tropes of science-fiction novels and films. There is no blood and no gore; no light sabers or death rays; no virtual gunfights at any future OK Corrals; no bloody one-on-one fist fights featuring a heroic victor. There is only a touching story of two young men who learn of their own very human character flaws, who begin to understand the perils of impulsive behaviors, who discover the beneficial effects of kindness, generosity, thoughtfulness, and love; and who learn of the positive personal effects of acceptance of oneself, flaws and weaknesses notwithstanding.
And to top it all off happily, Kelly provides us with a surprise “coda” that effectively sums up the NEAR futures of the novel’s main characters. It’s a lovely and appropriate ending to a thoroughly enjoyable novel.
Here are some discussion/study/composition suggestions and questions which may generate thoughtful responses:
- Do you agree with the theory that the NOW is the First State of Being, that TODAY, rather that the past or the future, is the most important time of your life? Whether you agree or disagree, explain the reasons for your thoughts and feelings. To support your opinion, you may use several methods. Consider logic, common sense, examples from life, examples from fiction, biographies, or news, and even the feelings that time travel possibilities evoke in you.
- Devise some thematic statements that reflect other themes that directly or indirectly emerge from the novel. Here are some possibilities: (a) Know thyself. (b) Guilt is entirely a self-destructive emotion that is necessary to overcome. (c) Never give up. (d) It’s always darkest before the dawn (e) Just do it! That’s a call to action and an encouragement to actively and immediately pursue your goal. (You can’t score the winning goal if you never take that shot.)
- What events from the novel made you think of or pick the one you chose?
- If you could choose to travel either forward in time or backward in time (but not both), which would you choose? Think of and state the advantages and disadvantages of both options regardless of which one you choose.
- Why might some say that Ridge’s decision to travel back two hundred years and to act on that decision regardless of the consequences seem to contradict the basic idea of the book’s title? Related: Which old saying (piece of advice) is true? (a) “Look before you leap.” or (b) “He who hesitates is lost.”
- Consider the “Grandfather Paradox”. Do you think you can discover or invent a way to solve it?
- Grandfather Paradox: A man knows that his grandfather was evil — that he committed grievous acts of violence after he reached the age of twenty, including many murders of innocent people. The grandson wishes there were a way to save those poor people. Then he discovers that it is now possible to travel back in time. So he decides to go back to “visit” his grandfather at a date when the murderer-to-be was a child. And to kill him. But now the paradox kicks in. If he murders his young grandfather, neither the time traveler’s father nor the traveler himself will ever be born, will never exist. And if he is never born, he’ll never be able to go back and kill his grandfather. So apparently, this entire scenario is an impossibility. Or is it?
Please note: This review is based on the final, hardcover book provided by the publisher, Greenwillow Books, for review purposes.
REVIEW AND STUDY QUESTIONS BY JACK KRAMER