Norton and Alpha

by Kristyna Litten

Overview

Norton the Robot is intrigued by his discovery of a lone flower one day and sets about trying to care for it, with amusing and ultimately poignant results.
A new book from the acclaimed creator of Blue & Bertie, Kristyna Litten, about making friends, appreciating the wonder of nature, and seeing that sometimes there is more to life than it might seem.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781471145780
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster UK
Publication date:	02/09/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	80 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	2 - 18 Years

About the Author

Kristyna studied Illustration at Edinburgh College of Art and graduated in 2010. She now lives in a beautiful village in Yorkshire. Her first picture book, Flint's Odd Socks, followed by Chickens Can't See In The Dark were highly commended for the Macmillan Prize two years running. Kristyna has written and illustrated the brilliant Blue & Bertie and Norton & Alpha for Simon & Schuster, and the stunning Ziggy and the Moonlight Show will publish in 2018.
 

Editorial Reviews

“The illustrations have a quirky retro look, and young readers will enjoy and perhaps be inspired by Norton's action as scientist. A quietly amusing fable that highlights the importance of nature in a mechanical world.” —Kirkus Reviews
 

From the Publisher

2017-01-17
What is that strange red object sticking up out of the ground?Norton is a robot who collects objects from the industrial waste ground outside his living quarters. He uses these objects to make new inventions. One day, he finds a small black sphere attached to a curly wire and adds it onto a new entity, a robot dog he names Alpha. The small dog with the perky tail "scurried into small, unreachable places, delved into unexplored spaces…and found all sorts of wonderful things." One day, Alpha leads Norton to "something very unusual." The inquisitive robots "[pluck] it from the ground" and take it home, where Norton tries all his "usual experiments" to determine what the object and its use could be. When he fails, he throws it out the window. One day it rains, and the next day is too hot to go out, but on the third day, what should Norton and Alpha find outside their home but a field full of the objects, in different colors and shapes, attracting butterflies. A gatefold opens to show the wondrous sight, and Norton and Alpha begin to gather these objects—which children will recognize as flowers—and decorate their drab home with them. Norton finally realizes their significance "is that they [make] him smile!" The illustrations have a quirky retro look, and young readers will enjoy and perhaps be inspired by Norton's action as scientist. A quietly amusing fable that highlights the importance of nature in a mechanical world. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews