The Year the Rivers Ran Backwards

Kids’ Stories Book

By: Ayokunle Mathew Akinbi

Narrated by: Kareen McBean

In the quiet village of Rivertown, the Silverbright River has always been the steady heartbeat of the valley. But one morning, fourteen-year-old Rebecca wakes to a silent, impossible world. The river is no longer racing toward the sea; it is creeping sluggishly backward toward the mountains. Gravity is losing its grip, reflections are freezing in place, and the very ink on her father’s maps is retreating into the jars, erasing the world as they know it.

As the “Turn” takes hold, Rebecca realizes that time itself is snagging on the past. To save her future, she must embark on a perilous journey upstream climbing waterfalls that fall toward the clouds and navigating a landscape where gravity is a mere suggestion.

Armed only with a rowan walking stick and her own sharp wits, Rebecca must reach the heart of the Whispering Mountains. There, she will discover the Clockmaker, an ancient celestial machine that has jammed on a dam of “Lost Things” the forgotten regrets and unsaid apologies of a thousand years.

©2026 Ayokunle Mathew Akinbi (P)2026 Ayokunle Mathew Akinbi