A Long Way from Home
“Our refusal to be complacent makes us who we are”
Twelve-year-old Abby is deeply immersed in worries about how human beings, through their selfish actions, destroy the environment consciously and unconsciously; this leads her to think that she lives in a “dystopian” world. As Abby grapples with these thoughts, she must reconcile herself with her mother’s decision to move to Florida to work on a scientific intervention potentially capable of significantly mitigating the climate crisis. In Florida, Abby finds an unexpected connection with Adam and Bix, time traveling boys from the 23rd century. Abby is utterly captivated by Adam’s description of their planet and feels an overwhelming desire to leave behind the “dystopian” world she currently inhabits to move there. She makes a pact with Adam that if she helps him find his sister, he will take Abby with them to their planet. Abby has a “utopian” concept of their future world, but little does she know that each time comes with its own problems.
A Long Way from Home explores the themes of climate crisis, migration, belongingness and intergenerational coalitions through the lens of science fiction. The story shows how climate emergencies cut across our understanding of identity, displacement and the search for “home”. The ideas of home and displacement are often related only to migration. However, this story aims to give a different stance on how the climate crisis affects the sense of home and can cause deep instability and displacement. Abby’s belief that her world is a dystopia is shaped by the existence of human-caused problems like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an example of a displacement crisis for the living creatures in the ocean. Meanwhile, Abby’s relocation to Florida also highlights the displacement caused by the climate crisis and Adam and Bix are displaced and away from home but in a different way.
The roller coaster ride in Abby’s understanding of her “dystopian” world to her planned escape to the “utopia” of the future, which she ultimately chooses not to go ahead with, leaves the readers with the message that avoiding or escaping any problem cannot make it go away. Abby realizes that it does not matter whether you come from the present or the future; what matters is that actions in the present shape the overall future. Any action, however small, towards avoiding the climate crisis is meaningful. One of the best ways to avert the climate crisis is to make insightful, wise, well-informed and considerate present-day choices. As humans, if we don’t save the environment, then the environment will not save us.
©2026 ClimateLit (Semina Halani)
Publisher: Carolrhoda Books, 2022
Audience: Ages 8-13
ISBN: 9781728468457
Pages: 280
Lexile Score: 720
Format: Novels
Topics: Climate Anxiety, Climate Crisis, Climate Migration, Dystopia, Earth Stewardship, Eco-anxiety, Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Interconnectedness, Intergenerational Coalitions, Migration, Science Fiction, Solutions, Utopia, Youth Climate Activism
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