Here we get nine pre-teen-friendly short stories with an ecological and scientific basis, all creating a 'what if' based on current science. But like a lot of climatology, thinking about the future, and scientific guesswork, the results can always tend to an uncertain place. The first piece here has the drama of a public meeting, and a rescue at an Iron Man-styled sea swim event, and critters out of place, but because the heart of it is a plastic-dissolving sludge that has made the island rich, there is no hard and fast good side and baddie. Yes, the sludge makes the island rich for the chance to eat the plastic from it and from elsewhere – but when the sludge-eaters bodge their own food chains, can anyone give them the green light? The lack of definitive answer makes for a better story, but in a volume supposedly giving us reassurance, the solution-free state is not the most helpful.

Perhaps unfortunately, I turned to Louie Stowell's piece next, because time/scheduling, and, well, she's Louie Stowell. But this offers the chance suggestion that the fairy folk might prefer the planet to be cooler and greener, and, er, that's about it. That was two from two not fully working for me. Slightly better was a child caught in a dilemma – the person most people in her neighbourhood find easy to dislike is an ace at the socialist hydroponics system they have, and our MC must collaborate with her to learn gardening for a much more personal reason. It shows us future food growth schemes while being as overt as you'd like about this being a more intimate story.

The next effort just did one into the bin – ze/zer pronouns indeed. And I'd have liked to see the otters myself, too, but pronoun mangling rubbish clouded that story completely, as always. Beyond that we're back to the socialism, of a kind, as guerilla gardeners are a thing in the Australian South. The story isolates a sad tale from that setting, when a lighthouse keeper loses his wife and lets the grounds go to seed. After that is a look at a carbon-minded future, where smart watches can judge each and every single, minute action or inaction, and determine the carbon good or detriment it does – handy for a kid who is in a remand centre for six months after a house-burning-down incident. But when we see the whole gamut of this tale's merits, and how really "it's about life finding a way" you realise all the virtues of such a taut, impactful drama.

We're left with a visit to Asia, and a coffee monoculture – where the pesticides have stopped working – is countered by one family organically growing the jungle that used to be there, and inviting along all the critters that used to be happily in said jungle. Subtle, it's not – but then neither is the closing piece, an advert for eating insects dressed up as a school competition, with all the lashings of classroom rivalry, slapstick mishap and old school beats the target audience's parents would all recognise. Heck, the contest prizes are even that old saw, tickets to an unlikely-sounding local cup final.

All told, this probably won't change too many minds about climate change – either towards doing more about it, or worrying less about it. It can be fine, dramatically taking us to near-futures with an eye to ecology. They can also be very poor indeed. Overall I could never pretend it was a complete waste of paper – but it did take me an inordinate amount of evenings to get through.

I pretty much enjoyed all of these stories though, to no ones surprise, my fave was the one by MG Leonard. I love her writing so much.

Future Hopes is just what I ‘hoped’ it would be: a collection of stories which are very different but form a great cohesive whole. The stories highlight the opportunities at our finger tips to wrest back control of our lives, to focus on more essential aspects of living socially, to harness the power of technology, to rebuild communities and how, in turn, we can face up to our shared peril, with courage, innovation, determination and hope.

I actually rate all of the stories but my favourites (in no particular order) are Saving Olumide (Tọlá Okogwu), Eyeballs, Tentacles and Teeth (Oisín McGann) and Food of the Future (MG Leonard). Also, I really like the use of editor’s notes after each story to add context and reference real-life inspirations for the stories.

Cross-curricular, full of authentic and diverse representation and so timely. The lesson plans almost write themselves. I can see some of the stories working brilliantly with UKS2; others will connect really well with KS3. The indices at the end with key questions, a glossary of terms, recommended reads and linked resources makes this a phenomenal resource.

These 9 short stories were ... alright. The general theme feel like they're pointed at a younger audience and definitely feels like the "Children's Fiction" it's labeled under. Unsure why "nonfiction" adult is also tagged here as the writing is very simple and all the main characters are very young.

After every short story however, there is an editor's note and those explain the "theme" and explain the mechanism and device used in the story and give an "adult" breakdown of how you can utilize these themes in your own life, along with a checklist of swappable items to live more clean and sustain-ly with reasonable changes such as "LED lights instead of fluorescent' and more.

For what it is, I feel it would be great as a classroom reading unit, but I don't feel a younger audience would this pick up willingly and read front to back.

What happens when you set nine fantastic authors the challenge of inspiring change in future generations? You get Future Hopes.

This book is a compilation of short stories about climate change. Instead of asking each of these great authors to write directly about the issue in a negative way which can incite fear and anxiety in several children, they were asked to get their thinking caps on and create novel fictional ways in which climate change could be fixed. What came back were thought-provoking stories about plastic eating bacteria (with a giant squid thrown in for good measure), rooftop farms on skyscrapers, cities run purely by tidal power, rewilding farmland, Food of the Future Bug Burgers and several other great ideas. Clearly fictional, although not completely beyond the realms of possibility, the tales offer our little ones food for thought on how our precious planet might be fixed. Lauren James does a great job of summarising each one and the facts that have created the fiction plus gentle observations and providing suggestions about how we can make a difference in our lifestyle choices.

The general message is of positivity, reassurance for children that they aren’t solely responsible for fixing the planet, and empowerment to galvanise them into becoming the type of adult who does change the world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Walker Books for sending this eBook for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

This book features a cover illustrated by one of my favourite illustrators -- David Litchfield and it is edited by one of my favourite authors -- Lauren James. To me, that means it is a must-read. When I read the contents page, I was pleasantly surprised by how some of my other favourite authors' works are included in this book.

It is a collection of short stories with an environmental message. Each story is followed by a note from the editor. That makes it so much more special and different from other collection of short stories.

I like the environmental message. The shorter length of each story also makes the book more accessible to younger audience.