I’d love to share this book with a class as you would get some superb PSHE conversations from it. Is she a true friend herself? Or is she just hungry for popularity and attention? But I will say that Sarah manages to upset some people along the way.

You’ll have to read it for yourself to see what happens to Sarah and her Troofriend. There is a constant ominous feeling, waiting for something bad to happen. Slight glitches and error reports (anyone that has bought a new laptop will have experienced these…). Questions as to whether the Troofriends are able to have human emotions. Without giving too much away, we are given snippets of information that start to make us question whether Troofriends are as great as the manufacturer’s state. Especially at Wednesday’s ‘Bring Your Tech to School Day’.Īs you can imagine, this isn’t a twee book about how great life is with a Troofriend.

Luckily, her mum has a plan and decides to invest in a Jenson & Jenson Troofriend 560 Mark IV.Īt first Sarah is not convinced, but she slowly warms to the idea of having an Android when she thinks that it may make her more popular at school. Her parents both work really hard and long hours so she doesn’t get much of a look in where quality time is concerned (a true modern tragedy). Many children will recognise Sarah, the main character in our story. I wouldn’t be surprised if Charlie Brooker gave her a phone call to write Black Mirror Jr for Netflix! She will also receive the same comparisons as last time (although due to having robots I’m sure Isaac Asimov will be mentioned too). Once again Kirsty Applebaum will receive many plaudits for her excellent writing. I dived straight in and I’ll cut to the chase, I LOVED it! I was so excited to receive an early copy of Troofriend and it was perfect timing as I’d just finished my previous read earlier that day. It was one of my favourite reads of the year and it fully deserves its place on the Waterstones Book of the Year shortlist. When ‘The Middler’ was released it was compared to Black Mirror for its dystopian future themes. It’s impossible to talk about ‘Troofriend’ without referencing ‘The Middler’.