The Probability of Everything

The Probability of Everything is a poignant and thought-provoking middle-grade debut by Sarah Everett, centered around eleven-year-old Kemi Carter, a budding scientist fascinated by probabilities and statistics. Kemi finds comfort and meaning in numbers—they help her understand the unpredictable world. She knows the odds of her being born were astronomically small, and yet she considers herself incredibly lucky to have her loving family.

But Kemi's carefully ordered life is upended when an asteroid, Amplus-68, appears in the sky, accompanied by a purple haze and an ominous statistic: there's an 84.7% chance it will collide with Earth in just four days. The impending catastrophe forces Kemi to reevaluate everything she thought she understood about life, relationships, and the permanence of the world around her.

While grappling with the asteroid's potential impact, Kemi is also adjusting to life in a new, less welcoming town and wrestling with the way others seem unaffected by the looming threat. Amid this upheaval, she sets out to create a time capsule—a tribute to her family and the truths she wants to preserve about their lives, especially her deep connection to her father.

As the days tick down, Kemi confronts not only the possibility of the world's end but also the inevitability of personal loss and the power of saying goodbye. With its tender exploration of grief, love, and resilience, The Probability of Everything is a moving and deeply human story about finding meaning in the face of the unknown.