To Infinity and Beyond

I can't think of a more fun pair to create a children's book than Jon Scieska and David Shannon. I have written about Scieska and Shannon separately in this blog because they both write books that boys love. Their collaboration on Robot Zot is pure boy brilliance. It combines Scieska's quirky humor with Shannon's characteristically child-like drawings. We loved it.

Robot Zot and his mechanical sidekick Bot arrive on Earth intent on conquering the planet. Their tiny size, however, makes that a bit difficult and when they end up in a kitchen fighting a blender and a toaster their dreams of world domination come to an end as they are chased away by the family dog. But Zot takes away a prize and leaves to find another world to conquer.

As we began reading this story, I assumed that Robot Zot was a toy and a little boy was off the page somewhere controlling the action. But, by the end, we realized that Robot Zot is, in fact, an intergalactic space traveler who has landed on earth in an unfortunate location.

Robot Zot is not what I would consider a sympathetic character, especially when he leaves broken appliances strewn over the kitchen floor and the dog gets blamed. But he is funny and endearingly naive. And he is a robot -- boys love robots.

This book will spark a young boy's imagination and get him dreaming about space travel and other worlds. And, best of all, it will make him laugh.