Published by Clarion Books

Summary:  It’s an ordinary day for 11-year-old Kemi when the news of an asteroid rapidly approaching Earth changes everything.  Kemi’s passion for statistics and probability tells her that the 84.7% chance of a collision means that life as she knows it will most likely end in four days.  As her extended family gathers together, Kemi decides to put together a time capsule to show anyone who finds it what her family was like. From her grandmother’s Nigerian recipes to her family’s “magical” sweatshirt, the time capsule soon has representation of each family member except her dad. Kemi goes on a scientific quest to find out his true passion, something he’s been searching for since leaving a demanding job.  As the days tick by, a huge plot twist emerges, and readers learn why it feels like the end to Kemi and her family, as they learn that even when the world ends, there is always an after.  336 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros and cons:  I started this book at the end of July, and it has taken me almost six weeks to finish it.  With record summer temperatures and wildfire smoke in the sky, it took all my willpower to keep reading about the impending destruction of the world.  But as I finally neared the end and learned what had really befallen Kemi’s family, it occurred to me that this may be the most timely book of 2023, with its meditations on loss, grief, racism, violence, and of course, the end of the world as we know it.  A Newbery contender for sure, if only Sarah Everett were American, not Canadian.