Meet Pip@256X#YY.37 (that’s not a typo, that’s actually her name) who is stuck at home – bored and lonely. And no, it’s not due to another pandemic.
It’s the year 3020, and as a result of the extreme weather children have to attend school online and people can barely go out- everything is now delivered to their door.
Face to face contact is considered to be ‘unnecessary’.
Pip has no one for company other than her talking pets – a parrot and cat. Her scientist parents are too busy for her and due to the law limiting each household to only one child, she has no siblings. Pip feels terribly lonely until the day she find a glowing ring in her parents’ home lab and time travels back to 2019!
Once there, she meets Rahul (who Baddiel fans will recognise from The Taylor Turbochaser) and together they set about getting her back to her parents in 3020….and perhaps saving the world at the same time!
I’m going to give this book the highest possible rating of 10/10.
The characters are heart-warming and due to the Covid 19 national lockdowns, the reader can really identify with Pip’s situation.
Sure, we don’t have the awesome high tech gadgets that Pip has to make life more entertaining over lockdown, but we can certainly relate to missing our friends and going out.
The story is really funny, entertaining and packed full of adventure. If I am being particularly fussy I would say that the middle of the book dips and slows down a little but not nearly enough for me to downgrade the rating and my friend actually liked the middle of the book as it made sure that this great book lasted longer.
David Baddiel often puts previous background characters in subsequent books, which is great but what I really like about Future Friend is that this time Baddiel has bought back a previous main character (Rahul) to be a main character once again. It really added to the enjoyment of the book.
Another thing I liked about the book is the futuristic world that Baddiel creates. There are a lot of details about life in 3020 that are really fun to read about. There are BedPods, DreamSets, CookStations and ImagineSuits to name a few. My favourite by far is MinkLink, which is a small, wireless chip implanted in Pip’s brain that allows her thoughts to control her actions.
I would recommend this book to anyone aged 8-14, fans of David Walliams or David Baddiel as well as those that like funny, exciting books that are easy to read.
10/10 for this marvellous book!
Happy reading! Booksy
Such an amazing publication