Future Library

Every night, while 16-year-old London Lane is asleep, her memory of that day is erased. In the morning, all she can “remember” are events from her future. London is used to relying on reminder notes and a trusted friend to get through the day, but things get complicated when a new boy at school enters the picture.

When Russell's dog, Rodney Rodent, jumps at a strange mural to get at a creepy-looking gnome and disappears into the painting, the Flint Future Detectives are on the case. This time they have a new president, Richelle. A secret password leads Steven, Russell, and Richelle to the mysterious Mr. Chickee, who's living in a whole different universe!

Every day, we use our computers to perform remarkable feats. A simple web search picks out a handful of relevant needles from the world's biggest haystack. Uploading a photo to Facebook transmits millions of pieces of information over numerous error-prone network links, yet somehow a perfect copy of the photo arrives intact. Without even knowing it, we use public-key cryptography to transmit secret information like credit card numbers, and we use digital signatures to verify the identity of the websites we visit.

In Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils, the award-winning author David Farrier explores the traces we will leave for the very distant future. Modern civilization has created objects and landscapes with the potential to endure through deep time, whether it is plastic polluting the oceans and nuclear waste sealed within the earth or the 30 million miles of roads spanning the planet.

Information is power. It drives commerce, protects nations, and forms the backbone of systems that range from health care to high finance. Yet despite the avalanche of data available in today's information age, neither institutions nor individuals get the information they truly need to make well-informed decisions. Faulty information and sub-optimal decision-making create an imbalance of power that is exaggerated as governments and corporations amass enormous databases on each of us.

Today, nearly one million books are published each year. But is the era of the book as we know it - a codex of bound pages - coming to an end? And if it is, should we celebrate its demise and the creation of a democratic digital future, or mourn an irreplaceable loss?

Unconditional Communication describes a way of communicating that gives voice to the best of us, rather than being a channel for the noise, bitterness, and antagonism that has become so much a part of our world. Communicating unconditionally not only feels better - because it is grounded in authenticity, empathy, and service to others - but it is also more effective at making things happen. This approach is a counterpoint to the idea that we have to be "tough" or "smart" to be heard.

Mr. Chickee, the genial blind man in the neighborhood, gives nine-year-old Steven a mysterious bill with 15 zeros on it and the image of a familiar but startling face. Could it be a quadrillion dollar bill? Could it be real? Well, Agent Fondoo of the U.S. Treasury Department and his team of Secret Government Agents are determined to get that money back! But Steven and his best friends, Russell and Zoopy the giant dog, are more than a match for the Feds.

Endorsed by authors, teachers, scientists and congressmen, Mike Mongo's The Astronaut Instruction Manual excites a new generation of space explorers. The audiobook, designed for children between the ages of 8 and 13, is a functioning first-step instruction manual. With excitement and honesty, Mongo encourages his listeners to articulate and personalize their own visions of next-generation space travel.

Inspired by kids across the country displaying rainbows in their windows, acclaimed illustrators come together to imagine everything these rainbows represent: caring for one another, and our hopes for the future. In this collection, listeners will lick an ice cream cone, swim in the ocean, cuddle close with cousins, and celebrate a birthday with a party full of friends and family.