
The First State of Being
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Narrated by:
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Ramon de Ocampo
About this listen
WINNER OF THE NEWBERY MEDAL
A FINALIST FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
Chicago Public Library Best Fiction for Older Readers of 2024
Shelf Awareness Best Books of 2024 for Kids and Teens
BookPage Best Middle Grade of 2024
Common Sense Media Best Books of 2024
2025 Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction Notable List
When twelve-year-old Michael Rosario meets a mysterious boy from the future, his life is changed forever. From bestselling author Erin Entrada Kelly, also the winner of the Newbery Medal for Hello, Universe and a Newbery Honor for We Dream of Space, this novel explores themes of family, friendship, trust, and forgiveness. The First State of Being is 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 sixteen-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 immerses himself in 1999—fascinated by microwaves, basketballs, and malls—Michael discovers that his new friend has a book that outlines the events of the next twenty years, and his curiosity morphs into something else: focused determination. Michael wants—no, needs—to get his hands on that book. How else can he prepare for the future? But how far is he willing to go to get it?
A story of time travel, friendship, found family, and first loves, this thematically rich novel is distinguished by its voice, character development, setting, and exploration of the issues that resonate with middle grade listeners.
Finalist for the National Book Award and Winner of the Newbery Medal.
©2024 Erin Entrada Kelly (P)2024 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Amazing Fantasy
- By Karen Reeder on 09-07-24
By: Polly Holyoke
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The Hoop Con
- Play the Game, Book 1
- By: Amar Shah
- Narrated by: Shawn K. Jain
- Length: 4 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Raam Patel is eager to prove himself ever since he didn't make the middle school's basketball team. So, when Hoop Con comes to town he is determined to be there and take his shot. His big moment proves to be unforgettable . . . but not in the way he'd hoped. Raam gets schooled by the camp's golden boy right in front of his NBA idol. To make matters even worse, this fail goes viral.
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Wonderful debut!
- By Gail on 10-12-24
By: Amar Shah
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The Firefly Summer
- By: Morgan Matson
- Narrated by: Mia Jenness
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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For as long as Ryanna Stuart can remember, her summers have been spent with her father and his new wife. Just the three of them, structured, planned, and quiet. But this summer is different. This summer, she’s received a letter from her grandparents—grandparents neither she nor her dad have spoken to since her mom’s death—inviting her to stay with them at an old summer camp in the Poconos.
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Good!!
- By Jonathan Wise on 06-10-25
By: Morgan Matson
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Will's Race for Home
- By: Jewell Parker Rhodes
- Narrated by: Christopher Hampton
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s 1889, barely twenty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and a young Black family is tired of working on land they don’t get to own. So when Will and his father hear about an upcoming land rush, they set out on a journey from Texas to Oklahoma, racing thousands of others to the place where land is free—if they can get to it fast enough. But the journey isn’t easy—the terrain is rough, the bandits are brutal, and every interaction carries a heavy undercurrent of danger.
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The Secret of Honeycake
- By: Kimberly Newton Fusco
- Narrated by: Cassandra Morris
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Hurricane is quiet while her Aunt Claire is a force of nature with very particular ideas—and a host of Latin sayings to back them up. When Hurricane gets stuck living with her, she retreats into herself...until a series of unexpected friends, including a mangy cat, help her find her voice in a whole new way.
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Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All
- By: Chanel Miller
- Narrated by: Chanel Miller
- Length: 2 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Down at the bottom of the tall buildings of New York City, Magnolia Wu sits inside her parents’ laundromat. She has pinned every lost sock from the laundromat onto a bulletin board, in hopes that customers will return to retrieve them. But no one seems to have noticed. In fact, barely anyone has noticed Magnolia at all. What she doesn’t know is that this is about to be her most exciting summer yet. When Iris, a new friend from California arrives, they set off across the city to solve the mystery of each missing sock.
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Discover the heart of the neighborhood and friendships in the company of the sock detectives.
- By steve on 01-21-25
By: Chanel Miller
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The Lost Year
- A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine
- By: Katherine Marsh
- Narrated by: Anna Fikhman, Christopher Gebauer, Jesse Vilinsky, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Thirteen-year-old Matthew is miserable. His journalist dad is stuck overseas indefinitely, and his mom has moved in his one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother to ride out the pandemic, adding to his stress and isolation. But when Matthew finds a tattered black-and-white photo in his great-grandmother’s belongings, he discovers a clue to a hidden chapter of her past, one that will lead to a life-shattering family secret.
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Impactful historical novel
- By Donna R on 05-15-25
By: Katherine Marsh
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Solimar
- The Sword of Monarchs
- By: Pam Muñoz Ryan
- Narrated by: Franchesca Agramonte
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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On the brink of her Quinceañera, and her official coronation, Solimar visits the oyamel forest to sit among the monarch butterflies. There, the sun pierces through a sword-shaped crevice in a boulder, which shines on her and sends the butterflies humming and swirling around her. After the magical frenzy, she realizes she's been given a gift — and a burden: She can predict the near future!
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Not a great experience
- By Heidi on 12-09-22
By: Pam Muñoz Ryan
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The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn
- By: Sally J. Pla
- Narrated by: Gail Shalan
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Maudie always looks forward to the summers she spends in California with her dad. But this year, she must keep a troubling secret about her home life—one that her mom warned her never to tell. Maudie wants to confide in her dad about her stepdad's anger, but she’s scared. When a wildfire strikes, Maudie and her dad are forced to evacuate to the beach town where he grew up. It’s another turbulent wave of change. But now, every morning, from their camper, Maudie can see surfers bobbing in the water. She desperately wants to learn, but could she ever be brave enough?
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Wonderful Listen
- By Regina on 10-07-24
By: Sally J. Pla
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One Big Open Sky
- By: Lesa Cline-Ransome
- Narrated by: Crystal Clarke, Janina Edwards, Emana Rachelle
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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1879, Mississippi. Young dreamer Lettie may have her head in the stars, but her body is on a covered wagon heading westward. Her father, Thomas, promises that Nebraska will be everything the family needs: an opportunity to claim the independence they’ve strived for over generations on their very own plot of land. But Thomas’ hopes—and mouth—are bigger than his ability to follow through. With few supplies and even less money, the only thing that feels certain is danger.
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Heroes
- A Novel of Pearl Harbor
- By: Alan Gratz
- Narrated by: Pete Cross, Matthew Bridges, Ramón de Ocampo, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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December 6, 1941: Best friends Frank and Stanley have it good. Their dads are Navy pilots stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the boys get a front-row view of the huge battleships and the sparkling water. Yes, World War II is raging in Europe and in Asia, but the US isn't involved in the war, and the boys are free to dream about becoming comic book creators. They've even invented a superhero of their own, in the style of Batman, Superman, Captain America, and other stars of the Golden Age of Comics. December 7th, 1941: Everything explodes.
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yygcc
- By Yan on 05-30-25
By: Alan Gratz
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Kareem Between
- By: Shifa Saltagi Safadi
- Narrated by: Peter Romano
- Length: 3 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Seventh grade begins, and Kareem’s already fumbled it. His best friend moved away, he messed up his tryout for the football team, and because of his heritage, he was voluntold to show the new kid—a Syrian refugee with a thick and embarrassing accent—around school. Just when Kareem thinks his middle school life has imploded, the hotshot QB promises to get Kareem another tryout for the squad. There’s a catch: to secure that chance, Kareem must do something he knows is wrong.
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Brick Dust and Bones
- By: M.R. Fournet
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Marius Grey hunts Monsters. He's not supposed to. He's only twelve and his job as a Cemetery Boy is to look after the ghosts in his family's graveyard. He should be tending these ghosts and—of course—going to school to learn how to live between worlds without getting into trouble. But Marius has an expensive goal. He wants to bring his mother back from the dead, and that takes a LOT of mystic coins, which means a LOT of Monster Hunting, and his mother’s window to return is closing.
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Local setting was perfect
- By Anonymous User on 07-23-23
By: M.R. Fournet
the characters were beautiful developed and real
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Riveting, original plot
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The vision of the world 200 yrs from now
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The readers voice. I liked it.
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Realistic Time Travel!
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The story was great except…. I am a teacher reviewing this to use in a 4th grade classroom. I cannot choose it because one of the side characters is listed over and over again as non-binary. I have no interest in throwing this term into the world of 9 and 10 year olds who, in my opinion, don’t need to know it. And, in my opinion, it’s their parents’ choice whether or not, and when or when not, to bring this up with children.
I also started a paperbook copy of the author’s “Hello Universe”. By page 38, one of the characters had used the word retarded or retardo at least 6 times. As a person who teaches students with intellectual disabilities, “normal” students, and gifted students, I find the use of this language (even from a “bully” character) disturbing. Most 9 year olds in my class haven’t heard the term and I certainly don’t want them to start using it.
All great EXCEPT…..
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Great, diverse, very different plot!
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Fun time travel adventure
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