Two days before Christmas, I was chatting on the phone with my sister. She was telling me about a book that she had read. She mentioned that she had bought me a copy and asked if it had arrived yet. It had not, but while I was talking with her Amazon delivered it. As soon as I finished the book I was reading, I picked it up as my first new read of 2025.
This is a middle grade book about a boy named Michael Rosario. He lives alone with his mother in an apartment complex in 1999. He is concerned about the Y2K problem. While talking with his babysitter (which he thinks he doesn’t need and who he has a crush on), they notice a strangely dressed young man who seems out of place. Something just seems “off”. The reader learns pretty quickly that this young man is from the future. Michael and his babysitter decide to befriend and help him, even though they aren’t sure they believe him.
I really enjoyed this book. It is an easy, quick read. The characters feel realistic. There is a touching relationship between Michael and the apartment complex’s handyman. Michael and his mother are close, too. In fact, as so often happens with single moms and sons, Michael feels the need to take care of her in some ways. It is sweet. And the time travel aspect reminded me a bit of Back to the Future but has its own clever twist on the dilemma of time paradoxes. Well done and worth the time to read.
My rating: 4/5
