The Future of Us

By: Jay Asher, Carolyn Mackler

Narrated by: Steven Kaplan, Mary Ellen Cravens

Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

It's 1996, and less than half of all American high-school students have ever used the Internet. Emma just got her first computer and an America Online CD-ROM. Josh is her best friend. They power up and log on - and discover themselves on Facebook, 15 years in the future.

Everybody wonders what their Destiny will be. Josh and Emma are about to find out.

©2011 Jay Asher, Carolyn Mackler (P)2011 Penguin

Critic reviews

"A clever, timely story that will attract any teen with a Facebook account." ( Booklist)

Great story!

What did you love best about The Future of Us?

I graduated in the late 90's so I loved all of the references to scrunchies and dial-up internet.

What other book might you compare The Future of Us to and why?

technically it may be science fiction but it reads like realistic fiction

What about Steven Kaplan and Mary Ellen Cravens ???s performance did you like?

both great voices, great performances

Any additional comments?

Several of my 8th grade students really enjoyed the book also!

Highly enjoyable story

If you could sum up The Future of Us in three words, what would they be?

you make your future

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Future of Us?

when she saw her pictures from high school labeled

What about Steven Kaplan and Mary Ellen Cravens ’s performance did you like?

they were fine , but the male narrator needs some improving

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

the way that the future changes the moment you decide something now .. I was really moved by this

Any additional comments?

this is a really fun read and I recommend it to everyone

Much different than expected

What did you love best about The Future of Us?

Well, I liked everything from it, the fact that it is about good old AOL and then it mixes with Facebook is pretty unexpected, but very interesting.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Probably Emma, only because she has more information about what's going on.

Which character – as performed by Steven Kaplan and Mary Ellen Cravens – was your favorite?

Emma, but Josh's voice is very professional sounding.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

You would love this book, something horribly cheesy...

Any additional comments?

I was assigned this book over the summer until I get back to school, I was so mad they were totally taking our summer away and making us stress about this... But I seriously loved it, I expected to not even remotely like it, but it's my favorite book now.

Good

It was a good story and my only problem was with the characters. Don't get me wrong I loved them but they would exasperate me sometimes

The Butterfly Effect of Facebook

THE STORY: There are two 'gimmicks' to this story: the first is that Josh and Emma (in 1996) are able to see their future Facebook pages (from 2011), and the knowledge of the future impacts their present actions and decisions. The second is that like "Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist", the narration of the story alternates between Emma and Josh, with Josh's parts written by Jay Asher (and read by Steven Kaplan) and Emma's by Carolyn Mackler (Mary Ellen Cravens). The alternating narrators works well, because if you find (like I did) that one narrator is especially annoying, you can rest easy knowing that that narrator will soon be replaced by a more likeable one. As for the Facebook thing.....when I started listening to this book, I wondered who the target audience was. I remember a time before Facebook. Heck, I remember the 90's. I laughed to myself when Emma strapped a discman to her arm to go jogging. I listened to Alannis and Dave Matthews - I remember bootleg tapes. "You've Got Mail" used to my favourite sound. And almost nobody had a cellphone. And I could relate with a bunch of 20th century kids wondering at texting or thinking that the only way you could access the internet was on a computer, because it wasn't that long ago that I was in that position. So it was a trip down memory lane. But would kids these days relate? Would they understand? Would they get the references? Or would it be a physical embodiment of the "back in my day" stories they get from their parents? I don't know. I know I enjoyed that aspect of the book. The story line was two-fold: on the one hand it was an experiment on how would people would react if they could see and thus change the future, and on the other hand it was a typical high school romance story. Both story lines are simple, but easy to digest and enjoyable.

THE AUDIOBOOK: Steven and Mary Ellen swap back and forth as the narration changes from Josh and Emma. Steven has a very easy to listen to voice, although his "female voice" was a little hard to take. Mary Ellen was very high pitched, but perfect for the character of Emma. The one negative aspect of this recording was the treatment of the Facebook posts: I'm assuming that in the print version, the Facebook status updates would be shown as screen shots, as though they were taken from a Facebook page (please, correct me if I'm wrong). And the narrators faithfully read everything in those screen shots....including the 'Like' and 'Comment' buttons, which just annoyed the heck out of me (so rather than just "Emma Nelson-Jones is having mac-n-cheese. 12 minutes ago", it becomes "Emma-Nelson Jones is having mac-n-cheese. 12 minutes ago. Like. Comment." Annoying, right?) Other than that, I found this a good audiobook to just zone out to on the train home.

Who knows what the future holds

This book does a great job of illustrating the importance of living in the here and now, and being grateful for what you have.

great for 90s kids. super cute story.

I am glad that my 15yr old recommend this book. As a 90s kid I really enjoyed all the funny references.

Love this book

I loved all the 90s references and it made me think about what I post on social media. Great book!

Fun and Interesting

It was cute. Perfect for teens. A good message about not worrying about what's to come...but living in the moment. My only complaint was the male narrator- he was too monotone. The girl was terrific.

Very interesting Story

The concept of the story is very predictable and makes common sense. I'm actually surprised I have not seen many books based on Facebook like this. I found the fact that the story takes place in the 90's quite funny. The AOL era, floppy disk, and not everyone having a computer: time was interesting. What I did not like was the ending. You don't know what happened and if anything did come true. Your left not knowing the story based on present day. Since the story had a lot to do with future, it was ok not knowing how that ends. However not knowing the characters present life.. the book just ends. In a nutshell; it's like this..a boy meets a girl. In the future their not together. But in the present they seem to want to be together. In both sides of the story, you never find out what happens. Very bad ending!