3 ideas
That makes it the object every villain converges on, and it turns the plot into a contest over who may be trusted with access to other minds. Its safety depends on the character of the person carrying it, not on the technology.
The future is shown through a child's everyday life: school, friends, pets and curiosity, set beside flying cars and alien zoos. Because the familiar parts of life carry over unchanged, a utopian future seems close and reachable rather than alien. The reader accepts the wonders because the people living among them are recognizably like the reader.
The pirates have shapeshifting, disguises and advanced technology, yet they lose to a group of schoolchildren. The children win by trusting one another, keeping a secret, and noticing when an adult's behavior is wrong. The book's position is that solidarity and alertness among ordinary people outweigh technological advantage when the goal is protecting something valuable.