Robobaby

by David Wiesner

Overview

In this hilarious gem from triple Caldecott winner David Wiesner, it's big sister to the rescue when a new baby is delivered to a family of robots and the adults are flummoxed by technical difficulties.

A new baby's arrival is a big moment in any family, even a family of robots. Award winner David Wiesner captures the excitement and fanfare when baby Flange appears—as a crate full of components. The adults bungle the process of assembling Flange, with catastrophic results. Big sister Cathy, with her handy toolbox and advanced knowledge of robotics and IT, hasn't been allowed to help, but in the ensuing chaos she calmly clears up the technical difficulties and bonds with her new baby brother. A shout-out for girl scientists and makers, Robobaby is an eye-opening and engaging blend of the familiar and the fantastic.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544987319
Publisher:	HMH Books
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	171,053
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	GN330L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

David Wiesner is internationally renowned for his visual storytelling and has won the Caldecott Medal three times—for Tuesday, The Three Pigs, and Flotsam—the second person in history to do so. He has also received three Caldecott Honors, for Free Fall, Sector 7, and Mr. Wuffles. He lives near Philadelphia with his family. hmhbooks.com/wiesner.

Hometown:

Outside Philadelphia, P.A.

Date of Birth:

February 5, 1956

Place of Birth:

Bridgewater, NJ

Education:

Rhode Island School of Design -- BFA in Illustration.

Website:

http://www.hmhbooks.com/wiesner/

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/06/2020

The plot of Caldecott Medalist Wiesner’s latest gives his artistic gifts a new challenge: rendering machines as living beings. A robot family welcomes an assemble-it-yourself baby robot but can’t get it running properly until their daughter comes to the rescue with her trusty toolkit. Shapely architectural lines form the metallic family—willowy mother Diode, stout father Lugnut, small daughter Cathode, chubby baby Flange, and dog Sprocket—and an illuminated floor lights the family from below, giving the spreads a warm glow. Energy tightens as the adults try to build the malfunctioning robobaby (“Thanks, Cathy,” says Diode, screwdriver in hand, “but this is a mother’s job”). Relatives come to visit (“Aunt Gasket!”), and robotechs arrive to snag the rocket-propelled baby with a net (“He needs a complete overhaul”). As the chaos intensifies, trying to work out which parts belong to which robot becomes its own visual puzzle. Against the how-things-work mayhem, smooth fields of color, streamlined panel artwork, and fastidious speech bubble typography make every spread elegant. Ages 4–7. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

★ "A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy." –Kirkus, STARRED review 

"Wiesner’s friendly robots, despite their clunky metal framework, infuse their twilit extraterrestrial world with warmth and mutual support, making this a convivial, if offbeat, addition to the new-baby-on-the-way collection." –The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

From the Publisher

★ 2020-06-03
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.

Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)

A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)

Kirkus Reviews

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