Sherri L. Smith (Pearl; Orleans) delivers a stellar work of middle-grade science fiction in Candace, the Universe, and Everything, about three generations of Black girls bound by a wormhole in their shared locker.
It's the first day of eighth grade, and a bird has just flown out of 13-year-old Candace's locker. Later, Candace finds a purple notebook on the top shelf of the locker that had not been there earlier; "Tracey Auburn, Fall '88" is written in the front cover. Tracey, a 53-year-old college professor, has memories of a bird flying into her locker in 1988 and of losing her purple notebook. She is understandably shocked when Candace finds her and presents her with the missing notebook 40 years later. Together, they test the locker by writing a note and leaving it inside. When they open the notebook moments later, there is a message: "Loretta Spencer... I'll be waiting." Loretta, a 93-year-old quantum physicist, has been studying the portal since a bird flew out of her locker in 1948. Now, Loretta needs Tracey and Candace to help her continue researching the "forty-year knot" of the locker wormhole.
Smith's novel is filled with cosmic metaphors, intergenerational connections, science, and self-discovery. She focuses the main narrative on Candace but includes chapters from both Tracey and Loretta's 13th year. Smith keeps a steady pace as she reveals the connections between the present and the past and she uses quotes from a beloved science fiction series in the world of the book to keep the reader speeding through chapters. With its contemporary When You Reach Me tone, Candace, the Universe, and Everything reminds readers that although the universe is boundless, our connections to each other are limited and thus extremely meaningful. --Natasha Harris, freelance reviewer