We the Future

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.)