The Monkey Who Fell From the Future

Ross Welford's The Monkey Who Fell From the Future is a time-travel adventure for 11 year olds that begins four hundred years from now, on a very overgrown Tyneside.

What happens

A space rock brought a germ that meant hardly any babies were born. Now the towns are empty and nature has taken them back. Ocean Mooney is eleven. She lives with her gran, Nanny Moo, and sells fish on the Newcastle quayside, crossing the river on a wobbly rope bridge because the last proper bridge has fallen in.

Then she meets Duke Smiff. He's cocky and cheerful and plastering the town with posters for his uncle's travelling show, the Caravan of Astonishments. There's a gramophone, a broken television and a film called Star Wars, which Duke is absolutely sure is a true story.

His uncle, Monsieur Lumière, is a showman to his fingertips. Everything is "fabu-labulous" or "unbelieve-alieve-abubble". His monkey, Pierre, wears a tiny purple velvet jacket to match.

And Duke has a secret. He's carrying a newspaper from 2023 about two cousins, Thomas and Kylie, who say their Time Tablet can talk to the future. After a live TV show they'll bury it near a yew tree, just up the road in Culvercot. Duke wants to dig it up.

Then the story jumps back to Thomas, in our own time. He is not thrilled that his genius Australian cousin has moved in, taken the spare room and started calling him Tommo. And you just know that live TV show is going to go wrong!

It's funny and clever, and the future is brilliantly imagined, all fish-oil lamps, rope bridges and people who've never seen a movie. Ocean's way of talking takes a little getting used to ('mediately, spensive, deff), but it soon feels completely natural.

Before you hand it over, a couple of things. A fire at the show leaves Monsieur Lumière badly hurt and everyone fearing for Pierre. Duke also talks about a cruel stepfather who beat him and cost him the sight in one eye. None of it is lingered over, but it's there.

What to read next

If your reader loves the time-travel side, Ross Welford's Time Travelling with a Hamster is a great next pick. Al gets a hamster and a letter from his dead dad on his twelfth birthday, and the letter leads him to a time machine hidden in a cellar.