The Rhythm of Time
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
An Instant New York Times Bestseller
From the Academy Award–winning, Grammy-winning, and New York Times bestselling author Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and the New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby comes this thrill-a-minute novel—the first in a rollicking time-travel adventure series that’s perfect for fans of Amari and the Night Brothers and Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky.
Seventh grader Rahim Reynolds loves testing out the gadgets invented by his brilliant friend Kasia Collins. First there were the X-ray glasses and all the trouble they caused. Now there’s the new cell phone she built for his birthday, even though his parents won’t let him have one. But Rahim is excited to use the phone to search for videos of his favorite old-school rap group. What he doesn’t know is the phone has a special battery that interfaces with a secret government satellite, which spells trouble when the phone transports him back to 1997. Almost immediately, he learns what every time traveler before him has: Actions in the past jeopardize the future. With Kasia as his only lifeline to the present, Rahim works with her to get home unscathed, all the while dodging bullies (on his end) and suspicious government agents (on hers).
Philadelphia in the late nineties is a new world for Rahim and Kasia, but it is a familiar place for Questlove, who, alongside S. A. Cosby, delivers a high-velocity tale where two best friends discover that sometimes the best beat is the one that brings you back home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Musician Questlove and author Cosby collaborate on a speculative adventure steeped with 1990s references and time-travel logistics. In contemporary Philly, hip-hop enthusiast Rahim Reynolds, a seventh grader, yearns to become a famous rapper, but his history professor father's anti-technology stance stands in the way of his laying down or uploading tracks. His homeschooled best friend Kasia Collins, meanwhile, lives in a wildly automated household next door, and is a gifted builder and hacker in her own right. When Kasia gives Rahim a vintage-style phone that she's created—and routed through several top-secret government satellites—using it teleports Rahim back to June 1997, three years before his long-disbanded favorite band, Four the Hard Way, broke up. As Kasia works to bring Rahim back to their present, attempting to stay a step ahead of government agents, Rahim ignores her warnings to avoid interactions in 1997, befriending his father as a young man and imperiling his timeline—and the future. Layering references to popular culture with speculative surrealism, the creators conjure an engaging love letter to the '90s that gives way to a heartwarming story of love and support. Characters read as Black. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 10–up.
