We the Future
by Cliff Lewis (Author)
I'm from the future. We need you.
Ever since he learned about climate change, twelve-year-old Jonah has dreaded a weather-beaten future where not even his asthma medication can save him. Luckily, a girl from that future arrives just in time to throw Jonah a lifeline.
Sunny traveled back to the 2020s with a mission: help Jonah launch a climate strike big enough to rewrite history. To do it, he'll have to recruit his entire school before Halloween. Why so soon? Sunny won't say. But how can Jonah win over 600 classmates when the only thing he dreads more than the end of the world is talking to other kids?
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Kirkus
The relevant message shines despite uneven execution.
Publishers Weekly
Environmental justice themes buoyed by friendship and community care infuse Lewis's impassioned, lightly speculative debut, which follows white 12-year-old Jonah Kaminski's quest to take down a local coal plant. Determined to educate his YouTube following about the apocalyptic consequences of climate change, Jonah climbs a mountain trail and starts a live broadcast. When he experiences a life-threatening asthma attack during his livestream, he doesn't expect to be saved by a girl wearing a pink astronaut suit, who hands him an inhaler and says she's from the year 2100. Believing Jonah's environmental activism has the potential to catalyze others' engagement, Sunday "Sunny" Turner, who is Black, has stolen a time machine and traveled back to save him. With Jonah's help, Sunny plans to confront a Pennsylvania senator on what she mysteriously terms "Zero Hour," an event that takes place in a month. Caricature-like antagonists, such as the coal plant's cigarette-huffing owner and bumbling future scientists pursuing Sunny for the time machine, dampen the novel's important messaging regarding contemporary climate emergencies. Still, the protagonists' tenacity, paired with Lewis's dynamic text, delivers a thought-provoking read. Ages 8-13. Agent: Jen Nadol, Unter Agency. (Apr.)
Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
JUV063000 - Juvenile Fiction | Recycling & Green Living
JUV039290 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Activism & Social Justice
Climatic changes
Novels
School fiction
Student movements
Ecofiction
Asthmatics
