# The First State of Being

**Author:** Erin Entrada Kelly
**Grade range:** Grades 6–8
**Age range:** 11–14
**First published:** 2024
**Page count:** 263
**Genre:** Middle Grade Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780063337312`
**ISBN-10:** `0063337312`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/the-first-state-of-being
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

In August 1999, anxious twelve-year-old Michael Rosario's ordinary life — fretting over Y2K and a crush on his babysitter — is upended when a teenage boy named Ridge appears claiming to be the world's first time traveler, carrying a book that outlines the next twenty years. Erin Entrada Kelly's grades 6-8 novel won the 2025 Newbery Medal and is a 2025-2026 Sunshine State Young Readers Award (Florida) nominee.

## Themes

- friendship
- identity
- courage

## Where this book is assigned

### Newbery Medal

- **recommended** · 6th grade — [source: Newbery Medal winners (American Library Association), via Wikipedia — 2025 Newbery Medal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbery_Medal)
- **recommended** · 7th grade — [source: Newbery Medal winners (American Library Association), via Wikipedia — 2025 Newbery Medal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbery_Medal)
- **recommended** · 8th grade — [source: Newbery Medal winners (American Library Association), via Wikipedia — 2025 Newbery Medal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbery_Medal)

### Sunshine State Young Readers Award

- **recommended** · 6th grade · Florida — [source: Sunshine State Young Readers Award 2025-2026 Master List (Grades 6-8)](https://www.floridamediaed.org/ssyra-6-8.html)
- **recommended** · 7th grade · Florida — [source: Sunshine State Young Readers Award 2025-2026 Master List (Grades 6-8)](https://www.floridamediaed.org/ssyra-6-8.html)
- **recommended** · 8th grade · Florida — [source: Sunshine State Young Readers Award 2025-2026 Master List (Grades 6-8)](https://www.floridamediaed.org/ssyra-6-8.html)

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