The Eyes of the Killer Robot

by John Bellairs

Overview

A boy tries to stop a rampaging robot in this “deliciously wicked fun” tale by the author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls (School Library Journal)
 
When feared Yankees slugger Cliff Bullard goes barnstorming around the northeast, offering $10,000 to any local pitcher who can strike him out, Professor Childermass and Johnny Dixon get a sneaky idea. There’s a local legend about a crackpot inventor who once built a robot capable of throwing a baseball 110 MPH, and the professor thinks that if they find the machine, they can win Bullard’s prize. They discover the rusted old monstrosity in an abandoned workshop and put it back together, piece by piece. But when they screw in the robot’s eyes and it comes to life, they realize they have made a terrible mistake.
 
As soon as it’s activated, the robot attacks, trying to kill Johnny and the professor. Was it made to be a killing machine, or have its circuits been corroded? To save the town and get a crack at the $10,000, Johnny and the professor will have to tame the steel beast.
 
The adventure stories featuring Johnny Dixon, from the award-winning author of The House with a Clock in Its Walls, are a delightfully imaginative treat, and this book in the popular series features “a unique plot, marvelous characters, and non-stop suspense” (School Library Journal).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781497637740
Publisher:	Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
Publication date:	09/30/2014
Series:	Johnny Dixon , #5
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	138
Sales rank:	955,380
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	870L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

John Bellairs is beloved as a master of Gothic young adult novels and fantasies. His series about the adventures of Lewis Barnavelt and his uncle Jonathan, which includes The House with a Clock in Its Walls, is a classic. He also wrote a series of novels featuring the character Johnny Dixon. Among the titles in that series are The Curse of the Blue Figurine; The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt; and The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull. His stand-alone novel The Face in the Frost is also regarded as a fantasy classic, and among his earlier works are St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies and The Pedant and the Shuffly.

Bellairs was a prolific writer, publishing more than a dozen novels before his untimely death in 1991.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for John Bellairs
 
“I have just spent a long rainy weekend buried under a quilt, devouring salty peanuts and a stack of John Bellairs mysteries. It was heaven . . . Much like other mysteries, these short works of the imagination are designed and constructed with the fine storytelling craft of an adult master. . . . Bellairs moves the action at a furious clip. . . . [These] hair-raising adventures also excite readers because they involve believable and likable characters with whom we can empathize in moments of danger . . . An endearing detective team.” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times
“Is there no end to the suspense John Bellairs can create?” —School Library Journal
 
“There’s suspense and action aplenty. . . Perfect for the pre-Stephen King set.” —Booklist
 
“Sophisticated notions on the nature of good and evil, nuanced storytelling, and expert world-building.” —AV Club
 

From the Publisher

Gr 5-8 Johnny Dixon and Professor Childermass, along with their friend Byron ``Fergie'' Ferguson, are back in another imaginative chiller. Here the three are pitted against Evaristus Sloane, an insane wizard and inventor. But even more frightening than Sloane is a robot he invented some 50 years before. The robot was built to look like a baseball player and to pitch balls, but the Professor, Johnny, and Fergie discover a much darker side to the mechanism. After finding the dismantled robot in an abandoned house, the Professor reassembles it. But after placing its eyes back in the empty sockets, the Professor realizes too late that he has resurrected a killer machine. Not only must the robot be stopped but also its mad inventor before Johnny loses his eyes and his life to a terrifying scheme. As always, Bellairs skillfully runs a current of evil just beneath the surface of the commonplace. The supernatural is mixed with the ordinary so effortlessly and so naturally as to make even the most bizarre people and situations seem possible in a very unsettling way. A unique plot, marvelous characters, and non-stop suspense make for deliciously wicked fun. Drew Stevenson, Tompkins County Public Library, Ithaca, N.Y.

School Library Journal