Robot, Go Bot!

Starred review from May 1, 2013
In this deceptively spare, very beginning reader, a girl assembles a robot and then treats it like a slave until it goes on strike. Having put the robot together from a jumble of loose parts, the budding engineer issues an increasingly peremptory series of rhymed orders-- "Throw, Bot. / Row, Bot"--that turn from playful activities like chasing bubbles in the yard to tasks like hoeing the garden, mowing the lawn and towing her around in a wagon. Jung crafts a robot with riveted edges, big googly eyes and a smile that turns down in stages to a scowl as the work is piled on. At last, the exhausted robot plops itself down, then in response to its tormentor's angry "Don't say no, Bot!" stomps off in a huff. In one to four spacious, sequential panels per spread, Jung develops both the plotline and the emotional conflict using smoothly modeled cartoon figures against monochromatic or minimally detailed backgrounds. The child's commands, confined in small dialogue balloons, are rhymed until her repentant "Come on home, Bot" breaks the pattern but leads to a more equitable division of labor at the end. A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the rest. (Easy reader. 4-6)

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July 1, 2013
Preschool-G A little girl assembles her own robot and speaks to him in short, rhyming phrases, beginning with Bubble blow, Bot? as she blows bubbles for him to chase, and Throw, Bot as they play catch. Gradually, she becomes more imperious, ordering him to hoe the garden, mow the grass, and tow her in a wagon. After Bot storms off, she leads him back and makes amends by pushing him on the backyard swing. Jennifer and Matt Holm lead off this colorful book from the Step into Reading Comic Readers series with an encouraging letter to parents, saying, Psst . . . you're looking at the Super Secret Weapon of Reading. It's called comics. While the digital illustrations may not look like traditional comic art, the story is told visually as well as in the speech balloons that carry the words. Beginning readers will appreciate the brevity of the text and the predictability of the rhyming phrases. An appealing choice for young readers and robot fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)