#MMGM: The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett
ABOUT THE BOOK
Eleven-year-old Kemi Carter loves scientific facts, specifically probability. It's how she understands the world and her place in it. Kemi knows her odds of being born were 1 in 5.5 trillion, and that the odds of her having the best family ever were even lower. Yet somehow, Kemi lucked out.
But everything Kemi thought she knew changes when she sees an asteroid hover in the sky, casting a purple haze over her world. Amplus-68 has an 84.7% chance of colliding with earth in four days, and with that collision, Kemi’s life as she knows it will end.
But over the course of the four days, even facts don’t feel true to Kemi anymore. The new town she moved to that was supposed to be “better for her family” isn’t very welcoming. And Amplus-68 is taking over her life, but others are still going to school and eating at their favorite diner like nothing has changed. Is Kemi the only one who feels like the world is ending?
With the days numbered, Kemi decides to put together a time capsule that will capture her family’s truth: how creative her mother is, how inquisitive her little sister can be, and how much Kemi's whole world revolves around her father. But no time capsule can change the truth behind all of it, that Kemi must face the most inevitable and hardest part of life: saying goodbye.
REVIEW
I've read a lot of middle grade books over the years I've been an elementary school librarian. But this book stands alone in both the story line and the way the story is told. I was surprised when I discovered the book described as having an unreliable narrator, because the story seems pretty straight-forward at first. Kemi Carter tells the story from her 11-year-old point of view. She loves science and math and references both liberally throughout the story.
The announcement of an Astroid soon to hit earth most likely ending life on earth leads Kemi to focus on how to face the end without letting fear overcome her and her family. After her family, father, pregnant mother, and toddler sister move in with her aunt and uncle, Kemi starts to put together a time capsule. She hopes that she can leave something behind for future 'earthlings'. Divided into parts based on the time left until the astroid hits, Kemi works to put together her time capsule. Tender moments between Kemi and each of her parents and extended family members as well as her best friend highlight the importance of family. This left me vulnerable when a shocking twist three-quarters of the way through the book changes everything. I spent the last quarter of the book crying off and on as the picture that Kemi created with her words, her math, and her science takes a drastic turn leaving the characters grieving and me along with them.
The imagery used in the book proves to be all too easy to relate to once the twist is revealed. Not only is The Probability of Everything well written but it's emotionally powerful as well. Not a book I'm likely to ever forget, the book inspires empathy in a way that few books do and makes a powerful point about the state of American society. Note: the subject matter makes this one more appropriate for older or more mature middle grade readers. Parents may want to read this one with their child(ren) as there is much to talk about in regard to the heart-wrenching events of the story.
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