ACHUKA

children's & YA recommendations on the go

You are here: Home / Archives for future

Augmented by Kenechi Udogu

By Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 4 Jun 2025

Waterstones
Bookshop

This YA, sci-fi eco-thriller debut told in a traditional first-person past tense is highly recommended. The novel won the inaugural Imagined Futures Prize for young adult eco science fiction.

I was going to be a Mechsim. I was going to use my powers to make a difference.

In a near future London, where extreme weather has depleted plant life, sixteen-year-olds must surgically augment an ability to contribute to the new utopian society. Akaego moves to a prestigious academy after the late discovery of her rare ability – she can project a vocal frequency that accelerates plant growth.

As Akaego learns to use her new skill and is chosen for an internship with the mayor she begins to feel like she can change society for the better . . . and it doesn’t hurt that the mayor’s gorgeous son, Joon, seems to be flirting with her. But then the Freestakers, an anti-enhancement group, warn Akaego not to get Augmented.

Can she discover the truth of her ability, find the courage to rebel and keep her power out of the hands of those wishing to control it?

Follow Kenechi Udogu on . Here you can see the front cover of the proof copy, which I think I prefer to the final design.

 

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

A post shared by Em Zi (@e.zwords)

Godfrey is a Frog by Alex Latimer

By Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 4 Jul 2024

Waterstones
Bookshop

See also:
The Duck Never Blinks [ACHUKA Book of the Day 28 Jul 2023]

So much creativity and imagination have gone into creating this delightfully entertaining and lightly informative picture book.

Godfrey used to be an egg, then he was a tadpole. Now, Godfrey is a frog. He changed quickly and it was all very exciting. He’s waiting for the next change . . . but it seems there isn’t one.

Is this it? Godfrey thinks. It’s not very exciting. Bear has wonderful claws, Deer has impressive antlers, Heron has majestic wings. Godfrey buries himself in the mud and hides away from the world. He doesn’t want to be just a frog.

Can Brinley the minnow, Radcliffe the snail, and Penelope the shrimp convince Godfrey that a frog is a pretty special thing to be?

You can follow Alex Latimer on :

 

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

A post shared by Alex Latimer (@almaxlat)

The Last Zookeeper by Aaron Becker

By Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 3 Apr 2024

Waterstones
Bookshop

“The allusions to both Noah’s Ark and Eden are sly but ever present, set as they are against Becker’s sumptuous watercolor and pen-and-ink backdrops. Here, the very existence of life on Earth hangs in the balance, and the stakes have never been higher. Minute details pepper each scene, giving sharp-eyed readers the chance to find something new every time they page through this book (like the fact that the meat-eating tigers are kept in their own separate cage on the robot’s boat). True fans will find themselves poring over these pictures for hours. Epic storytelling erupts on the page without the use of a single word. Superb.” KIRKUS

See also:
The Tree And The River [ACHUKA Book of the Day 21 Apr 2023]

A master of the wordless form imagines a futuristic Noah’s Ark in a luminous sci-fi parable for our changing world.

Follow on :

 

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

A post shared by Aaron Becker (@storybreathing)

The Earth has flooded. The only signs of humankind are the waterlogged structures they left behind. Peeking out from the deluge are the remnants of a zoo, home to rare and endangered animals, survivors of long neglect. Tender-hearted NOA is a construction robot who’s found new purpose as the caretaker of the zoo’s beleaguered inhabitants. Bracing for the next storm, NOA builds an ark from the wreckage in search of new land, only to discover something even more profound. With boundless compassion and sweeping scenes of sea and sky punctuated by detailed wordless panels to pore over, Caldecott Honor–winning creator Aaron Becker delivers a timely and concrete message about the rewards of caring in even the most difficult of times that is sure to inspire the dreamers among us.

Red Dust, White Snow by Pan Huiting

By Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 17 Aug 2023

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

“A surreal, claustrophobic tale with much to say about the modern world in which we live and thought-provoking in the sense that this is what our future could indeed resemble.” Amazon reviewer
“I loved the whole idea behind this book. It’s set in a near-future Singapore, where social media has all but replaced genuine connection, and our nameless main character is isolated and lonely despite being surrounded by people all the time. It’s an absolutely wonderful, astute and poignant critique of the way modern society increasingly disconnects us from both our fellow humans, and the natural world around us.” NetGalley Reviewer
“The portrayal of loneliness struck me as particularly poignant. The main character’s life seems to be on an unchangeable track, a continuous loop with no exits. The mundane reality and the isolation she experiences at work were rendered with such clarity that it was hard not to empathize with her longing for something more. She is what really drew me into the novel: I just wanted to be her friend. Her nightly escapes to a magical mountaintop school, filled with friendships and the thrill of summoning spirits, became a place of refuge, not only for her but also for me as a reader.” NetGalley reviewer

‘Who is to say dreams are insubstantial when whole lives can be lived in their pursuit?’

When an office worker receives a mysterious device promising to transport her to a parallel universe, she assumes it is just another marketing stunt. That night, in here dreams, she visits a fantastical place. On waking she returns to her normal life, only to return to the same dream the following night. At first she finds the ongoing dreams bizarre, but the more time she spends in the dream world, the less she wants to wake up.

As her fantasy begins to encroach on her waking life, dream and reality collide with drastic consequences.

With sharp insight and wry humour this debut work of speculative fiction by an artist from Singapore highlights the blurring of reality and fantasy in our increasingly virtual world.

A thought-provoking read for young adults locked into the online versions of themselves.

Bright New World: How to make a happy planet by Cindy Forde

By Leave a Comment

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

“Filled with bold hope, a vision of a near future in which changed human habits, from eating to energy consumption, travel to architecture, have addressed the world’s most pressing problems. Beautiful and inspiring, it includes clear depictions of the perils facing the planet, but also how the solutions to each might be realised, alongside profiles of leading environmental innovators and young activists.” Guardian

A lavishly illustrated glimpse into a future not too far from our own time – a world in which today’s children have grown up and tackled the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems. In a series of lush, detailed scenes, readers will enter a world of solar-powered vehicles, regenerated rainforests, skyscraper farms, insect-based snacks, recovering coral reefs, wave-powered electricity, and much more.

The vision may be bold and optimistic, but everything in the book is based on genuine science, including many projects which are currently being developed. Once readers have seen the possible bright future, they will also learn all about the perils facing the Earth, as well as the solutions to each problem, with practical steps that they can take to help save the planet and make the dream a reality.

As well as profiling the biggest names in eco-innovation today, readers will learn about today’s young inventors, entrepreneurs and activists who are making the world better, one step at a time.

The Raven’s Song by Bren MacDibble & Zana Fraillon

By Leave a Comment

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

The Raven’s Song alternates between the stories of Phoenix, who lives in a near-future world impacted by climate change and a devastating pandemic and Shelby, one hundred years in the future in a post-pandemic, post-pollution, post-city world where each community is exactly three hundred and fifty people sustainably subsisting on seven hundred hectares. The story of a world that is beginning to fall apart, and a chance to see it all put back together, The Raven’s Song is a vision of hope for the future, seen through the eyes of the young people who will fight for it.

The Stranded by Sarah Daniels

By Leave a Comment

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

A gripping near-future thriller: love triangles, betrayals and fights for freedom in a world turned upside-down. Impressive debut.

Welcome to the Arcadia. Once a luxurious cruise ship, now it is home to the stranded. For forty years, they have lived, and died, on the water. A place of extreme haves and have-nots, gangs and make-shift shelters, its people are tyrannized by a country they can see but can’t get to. A country that says it doesn’t want them. Esther is a loyal citizen, working flat-out for a rare chance to live a life on land. Nik is a rebel, intent on liberating the Arcadia once and for all. Together, they will change the future…

Follow the author on Instagram:

The Blue Book of Nebo by Manon Steffan Ros

By Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 25 Jan 2022
Carnegie Medal for Writing 2023

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

“A curiously sweet-tempered novel that finds the upside of global catastrophe.” KIRKUS

The book’s jacket is a lovely rich dark blue, almost black. Bible-black, Dylan Thomas said. But you can tell when a book is a Bible, without even looking at the spine for the title. You just know. My book doesn’t look like an important book, but all books are just words strung together.
[from the opening chapter]

Dylan was six when The End came, back in 2018; when the electricity went off for good, and the ‘normal’ 21st century world he knew disappeared. Now he’s 14 and he and his mam have survived in their isolated hilltop house above the village of Nebo in north-west Wales, learning new skills, and returning to old ways of living. Despite their close understanding, the relationship between mother and son changes subtly as Dylan must take on adult responsibilities. And they each have their own secrets, which emerge as, in turn, they jot down their thoughts and memories in a found notebook – the Blue Book of Nebo.

Manon Steffan Ros not only explores the human capacity to find new strengths when faced with the need to survive, but also questions the structures and norms of the contemporary world.

She is twice winner of the Drama Medal for playwrights at the National Eisteddfod of Wales and won the Prose Medal in 2018. In June 2017, she won the prestigious Tir na n-Og Award for the third time, in the primary school category, presented by the Welsh Books Council to honour the year’s best Welsh-language book. This novel has been translated from the original Welsh by the author herself.

Follow the author on Instagram (don’t you just love the jacket illustration on this foreign edition – though I have to say the UK cover is fabulous also):

 

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

A post shared by @manonros

The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud

By Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 21 Apr 2021
Times Children’s Book of the Week 17 Apr 2021

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

“Stroud does not compromise. Scarlett is unpleasant, hard to love; Albert is irritating, weak. Yet through skill and good writing we begin to love and understand this odd couple, mini-me John Waynes, and by the end we’d pay a ransom (or at least the paperback cover price) to see them again. Luckily for us there is a new one trotting over the horizon . . .” The Times

Set in a broken, future England, where gunfights and monsters collide, this is the exciting first title in a phenomenal fantasy teen series by the bestselling children’s novelist. England has been radically changed by a series of catastrophes – large cities have disappeared and London has been replaced by a lagoon. The surviving population exists in fortified towns where they cling to traditional ways, while strangely evolved beasts prowl the wilderness beyond. Conformity is rigidly enforced and those who fall foul of the rules are persecuted: some are killed, others are driven out into the wilds. Only a few fight back – and two of these outlaws, Scarlett McCain and Albert Browne, display an audacity and talent that makes them legends.

“‘What I didn’t know to begin with was quite who my characters were going to be. It was going to be some slightly jaded middle-aged bloke – I can’t think why I pegged it on that figure! – and for a long time I was writing about this guy who hung out with these kids and it didn’t quite work. So in the end I pushed him overboard and made Scarlett McCain my key figure. As soon as she took centre stage I knew it was the way to go.’”
Quote from the author, include in this recommended BfK feature

The Hill by Ali Bryan

By Leave a Comment

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

“Hits all the right apocalyptic notes. A great pick for forward-thinking feminist teens.” BOOKLIST
“Lyrical writing and deep worldbuilding make for an immersive reading experience.”KIRKUS REVIEWS

In the near future, a group of girls survive by their own wits and follow the laws of the Manual on the Hill, a reclaimed garbage dump they call home. The cardinal rule? Men and boys spell danger. After a Departure Ceremony releases the eleven oldest girls back to the Mainland, Wren becomes their new leader, and she’s desperate to do a good job.So when one of the girls goes missing only a few hours into her new position, Wren makes the fateful decision to leave the Hill in search of the girl-only to encounter boys for the first time in her life. Is it a coincidence, then, that the Hill is attacked while she’s gone? In order to survive and lead her community, Wren must sort fact from fiction, ally from enemy, and opportunity from threat.

The Hill is a feminist dystopian novel that explores gender, power, and the search for truth in a world defined by scarcity, distrust, and gender politics. Gritty and compassionate, Bryan’s unforgettable novel shines a light on the consequences of consumerism and environmental neglect while reminding us what it takes to be a girl in this world.