The Future Book

Greetings from the future, where the most popular colour is blorange, people say goodbye by telling you that you smell like a baby, and the supermarket goes by the name Bolly Bolly Hoo Hoo. Mac Barnett's new picture book claims to have arrived from the years ahead, and it speaks to its audience with the patient, faintly puzzled confidence of a visitor explaining perfectly ordinary things.

The joke builds page by page, as invented words and odd new customs pile up into a gloriously daft story that children can join in with and grown-ups will be happy to perform at bedtime. Made by Barnett with a fellow picture book creator, it is a playful look at how language works and how strange the familiar can sound. A treat for small listeners who love a silly word and want to hear it again.