A Boy and His Bot

Shy, unpopular Code is miserable when his grandfather disappears. His life goes from bad to bizarre when, on a school field trip, he trips over a hole and winds up in Mek Mound--once an ancient Okalahoman pyramid, now a land of metallic robots that threaten Earth. David Ackroyd's narration is solid and precise. He gives a human sound to a myriad of robot personalities--a windy-voiced curmudgeon of an inventor, Code's chatty robot buddy, and their threatening nemesis, Immortalis. Ackroyd delivers Code's fears and hopes, as well as moments of humor, as he searches for a way to free his grandfather and vanquish the mechanical villains. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

November 1, 2010
Wilson brings the expertise of his adult titles How to Survive a Robot Uprising and How to Build a Robot Army (and a Ph.D. in robotics) to his first middle-grade novel, a campy down-the-robot-hole adventure. Shy sixth-grader Code Lightfall is not a boy of action, but on a field trip, he falls down a hole in Mek Mound, an ancient Oklahoman pyramid where his grandfather disappeared a year earlier. Code finds himself lost in Mekhos, a metallic land of robots ("Mekhos makes no sense!" he complains. "You robots are impossible. Everything is either too small to see or too big to figure out"). When Code discovers that his grandfather is being controlled by the evil Immortalis, who is holding captive the sacred Robonomicon, he teams up with friends Peep, a robot bug, and Gary, a crazed "atomic slaughterbot," and travels through treacherous territory to the Celestial City to prevent the destruction of the robot and human worlds. With a goofy sense of humor and plenty of action, Wilson presents a coming-of-age journey with shades of Alice in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Ages 8–12.