Future Vision

Future Vision: Stories of our Brilliant Tomorrow helps bring out the inner optimist and keeps the cynical at bay. This nonfiction book is about the future and set in the year 2070. It shows us what the world might be like in 40-50 years’ time. ..., it can be difficult to be optimistic – but progress takes years, decades. Making readers aware of this is what this book does really well. 

It shows how all the positive things being done now might impact the future, and how readers might be able to impact the future too.

Future Vision would sit well in various areas of the curriculum as an accompanying text. Especially in science, technology and environmental topics. Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 children will find this fascinating and inspiring as do all of us when presented with visions of the wonders of tomorrow.

* Just Imagine *

Journey to 2070, and a world of green and renewable energy, of empathy and kindness, and clean and reliable transport on tap. It is so easy for young people to feel disheartened about the future, but this hopeful book paints a picture of a brighter tomorrow.

* The I Paper *

The book cleverly takes today's way of life and springboards from it to create a world where 800kph superloop trains and share-hopper taxis exist. Petrol and diesel are energy sources of the past and traffic jams and road accidents are no more. The book presents a possible cleaner, safer, more positive future as if it has already happened, and alongside the author's vision, this book documents the facts and statistics; this is not just a vision of what they want to see.

Future Visions is expertly written by scientist Dr Cathy Rogers and illustrated by wildlife-loving Madeleine Rogers. The passion, detail, knowledge and sense of joy and fun that the duo have is absolutely amazing. Their inventiveness in sharing this vision for our world, as if it were already a reality, is a fantastically inspiring and thought-provoking way in which to harness young readers' enthusiasm and engagement in wanting to actively help create such a prosperous future.

Believable, relatable and so relevant - like a blueprint of where the world could be. A hugely meaningful and powerful book for young (and old!) readers.

* Reading Zone *

Guaranteed to spark discussion, the writer draws on the knowledge and predictions of a range of experts, seeking to explore what the world might be like in 2070. Whether you fancy travel by hi line cable cars or tasting 3D chocolate, this is an optimistic vision of an exciting future.

-- Sue McGonigle * Books for Keeps *

Future Vision is ostensibly a children’s book, but we could all do with a dose of what its authors — the sisters Dr Cathy Rogers and Madeleine Rogers — term “realistic optimism”. In a world that can feel dominated by terrifying news, this beautifully illustrated and deceptively simple-seeming book offers a much-needed corrective. The date is 2070 and the narrator of the book is 12-year-old Kit, who is explaining what our future world looks like. We have not descended into a fascist Wild West beset with environmental devastation and AI gone rogue, oh no, all the many scientific advances of recent years have reached their culminations so now we have fossil-fuel free travel, rewilded landscapes, home bots that improve domestic life, AI that can be harnessed for human benefit, a healthy ocean, tasty meat-free dinner options, a functioning, inclusive democracy and much more. The authors have spoken to academic experts so that “everything in the book is based on real possibilities”. Timelines for change are offered, showing how we may get from where we are now to a more equitable, healthy, stable and happy tomorrow. It all seems eminently doable. “In the last few decades we’ve made some of the biggest improvements to global health and poverty in human history. By understanding how much things have already changed, we can continue to improve things,” write the authors.

The stories we tell, the stories we hear, they matter. If we are so scared of the future that we feel incapable of action then the seeds for change that are being sewn now may not blossom, so let’s change the story. As the writers say, “optimism is contagious”.

-- Gavanndra H