Robo-Sauce

Starred review from July 13, 2015
Is there an award for best gatefold ever? Then tell Rubin and Salmieri to get out their tuxes, because this book has the one to beat. Their premise is simple: a boy loves dressing up in a homemade robot costume and terrorizing his family (“robo-poke! robo-grab! robo-stomp!”). When the smooth-talking unseen narrator offers the kid a chance to become an actual robot by drinking the “Robo-Sauce” of the title, the boy can’t resist; he then uses the sauce to engineer a full-scale robot takeover, which includes the very book readers hold. A gatefold late in the story can be extended and wrapped all around the book’s façade, transforming it into a metallic, orange-accented “Robo-Book.” Grownups who hate fun may question the staying power—not to mention physical resilience—of the book’s novelty element. But rest assured that it’s a very funny story, too, as the narrator finds out that he’s inadvertently brought about a robot apocalypse. The Robo-Times’s critical assessment (as blurbed on the robo-story’s new back cover) says it best: “Beep Boop!” Ages 4–8. Illustrator’s agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House.