Joe, Sam, and Fred are with their class on a field trip to New York’s Museum of Natural History, where they become inspired by exhibits on the past to use their Book to travel one hundred years into the future when their present day would be just as long gone. They discover a future of aggressive sales-robots and antigravity discs. Needing to find the Book to return home, they run from being discovered and find unexpected help from their great-granddaughters: Jodie, Freddi, and Samantha.
This is the fifth volume in the Time Warp Trio series by Scieszka, so jumping into 2095 without any prior information is a bit discombobulating, even for a children’s book. The first chapter begins mid-action, after the boys have already reached one hundred years into the future and become threatened by a robot. The second chapter then steps back to the start of the story in 1995 to explain how things have gotten here.
The means by which the boys travel (the Book) has been given to them by a magician, Joe’s eccentric maternal uncle (also named Joe), who had originally gotten it from Joe’s mother. It seems no one quite understands the nuanced workings of the technology (or magic), meaning it doesn’t quite make sense why they’re so eager to use it — even with the lack of judgement boys indeed have. It seems the Book doesn’t travel through time with them, as they need to then search around for it in the time they end up before being able to use it to return to their home time. Again, the rules of this all don’t really quite make sense, aren’t explained, and seem poorly worked out by the characters young and old. So it basically just comes across as authorial means to allow the plot and adventure to ensue.
As with other books I’ve been finding at thrift shops and using for Into the Wardrobe, the Time Warp Trio series is one I was too old for when it was originally published, so I’m completely new to it. According to Goodreads, the series went on for 16 volumes, and it spawned a television show adaptation. 2095 specifically was adapted as one of the early episodes. I’d guess that it was chosen for two big reasons.
First, this seems to be the only (or one of the few) volumes of the series where the trio of boys travel to the future, rather than going to live through episodes of the past. It’s unique therefore in those speculative elements of what one hundred years into the future might look like. And 2095 succeeds in doing that in a fun way for a kid’s book.
Secondly, this introduces a trio of girls who could be used for the cartoon adaptation as a balance for what otherwise would just be male-centric adventures. In the book the great-granddaughters are far more interesting, intelligent, and fun than the main characters, so this was a wise move. If those girls didn’t regularly reappear in the book series, Scieszka missed out.
I imagine these would be enjoyable for kids to read as a series, even today, though I’m not sure I would’ve been that into them myself. The illustrations (by Lane Smith) are whimsical to fit the story, but aren’t a style that I’d gravitate towards. The Sellbots are a definite high point of humor in the book, but the remainder of futuristic elements felt more expected and standard to the genre (à la Back to the Future II.)
Let us know if you read this series when younger, and share your memories, or let us know if your own children still read it or have watched the show.
