The Day the Screens Went Blank

Danny Wallace's The Day the Screens Went Blank is a funny family adventure for 8 year olds about what happens when every phone, telly and tablet in the country just stops.

What happens

Stella Bobcroft is ten and VERY organised. She lives in Mousehole in Cornwall, where Sunday night is Family Film Night. That means everyone sits in the same room watching a different film on their own screen.

Then one Sunday, every screen goes blank. And they stay blank. Dad has a nine o'clock appointment and no idea who it's with. Mum can't check her orders. Nobody even knows Grandma's phone number, because it only ever lived inside their phones.

Grandma lives on her own, miles away on the far side of the country. So the family pile into the car to go and rescue her, with no sat nav, no map and a scrap of paper with directions from Dad's work friend, Boring Paul. What could possibly go wrong?

Quite a lot, as it happens. Dad ends up covered in mud (and something smellier), the directions fly out of the window, and a passing tractor soaks him with a puddle.

Stella tells the story herself, and her voice is the best bit. She has an opinion on absolutely everything. She'd like a dog called Jacinda one day. She reckons grown-ups who moan about kids and screens, then panic in the street when their own phones stop, are being hypocritical (that's this month's new word).

There's something warm underneath the jokes too. Dad isn't happy in his job and money is a bit tight. Stella notices more than she lets on, and you get the feeling this trip might be the first real family adventure they've had in ages.

Grown-ups reading along will probably laugh as hard as the kids, especially at the bit about how people used to keep phone numbers in their heads. And if your house has its own version of Film Night, it might spark a conversation or two.

What to read next

If they're after another very ordinary family on a very bumpy road trip, try Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again. The Tootings' dad has just been sacked, and he announces that it means they can finally go anywhere in the world.