Wazdot?

June 1, 2014
Robot extraterrestrials encounter a farm on Earth.A family of bots, each carrying a handy digital device called a Zot, head away from their mod-looking single-occupant space vehicles to explore the moon. All, that is, except Blip, who spies Earth and heads there instead. Staccato rhyming text covers Blip's exploration, with his Zot warning him each time he's about to encounter something new. " 'Blip, stop!' / 'Zot, wazzzzzdot?' " Broad visual cues, which at first only show parts of the whole, let kids in on the fun-they'll know that muddy pig by its curly pink tail. Blip encounters boxes of fresh, crunchy vegetables, three aggressive chickens, a dairy cow and more. Each new discovery reveals more of what is obviously a farm. After Blip drives a tractor-with predictable results involving a tree stump-the mother bot arrives, looking quite displeased. His Zot summarizes all that Blip has encountered (Slack shows the farm denizens in silhouette above their heads), and the bots happily explore. Mother collects her explorer for departure-but where is Blip? Driving Sunnyland Farm's veggies to town, of course. Slack's digital paintings couple stylized, sharp-edged images and a wild color palette of magenta, chartreuse, blue and orange to convey an ET's-eye view of familiar toddler icons.Good, silly fun wrapped in crisp graphics. (Picture book. 2-4)

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July 1, 2014

PreS-Gr 2-Blip, a big-eyed, big-eared blue alien child, makes an unplanned detour to Earth during a class trip. He lands on a farm and learns to recognize a number of animals, vegetables, and farm implements. Blip's Zot, a hand-held device that resembles a cell phone with a retro-styled radar antenna on top, helps to identify a pig, vegetables, cranky chickens, and a milk-squirting cow with a refrain of "Blip, stop! Zot, wazzzzzdot?" Eventually, Blip's teacher appears to reunite the wayward alien with its class, though by the end, Blip and Zot are off on another adventure. The simple text will be great fun for storytime, with children joining the repetition and identifying objects by their bold shadow forms. The digitally painted illustrations are colorful and engaging, with the curious Blip peeking and hopping through the pictures. The only oddity is the quirk of having the story begin on the dust flap and endpapers, so readers who flip past the title page will be confused as to exactly what is happening. An entertaining addition to read-aloud collections.-Martha Link Yesowitch, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC

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