Little Robot

by Ben Hatke

Overview

When a little girl finds an adorable robot in the woods, she presses a button and accidentally activates him for the first time. Now, she finally has a friend. But the big, bad robots are coming to collect the little guy for nefarious purposes, and it's all up to a five-year-old armed only with a wrench and a fierce loyalty to her mechanical friend to save the day!

In the Eisner-winning graphic novel, Little Robot, New York Times Bestselling author Ben Hatke brings his signature sweetness to a simple, moving story about friendship and overcoming fears that will appeal to readers of all ages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626720800
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	09/01/2015
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	189,446
Product dimensions:	8.95(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.65(d)
Lexile:	GN170L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Ben Hatke is the author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling Zita the Spacegirl graphic novel trilogy and the picture book Julia's House for Lost Creatures. He lives and works in the Shenandoah Valley with his wife and their boisterous pack of daughters. His latest book is Little Robot.

Editorial Reviews

Hatke captures that weirdly alluring mix of industrial decay and the natural world that makes junkyards and other abandoned settings so irresistible to children. Our heroine is like some postmodern mini-Eve, making her own Adam and her own story. There's even a brand-new language: Hatke lets pages go by in which all the speech bubbles are filled with an invented robot-speak—"Plaat!," "Zup Zup!," etc. As Dr. Seuss knew, most early readers have programmatic school learn-to-read regimes bearing down on them every day, and making out those kinds of nonsense words can be pure liberation.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

06/01/2015
Hatke (the Zita the Spacegirl books) is in full command of his sweet-tempered sequential storytelling style, with a gift for fusing classic story elements into new creations. His nameless heroine is a curly-haired, brown-skinned girl in a baggy shift dress. Escaping her trailer park and finding her way into a nearby overgrown junkyard, she discovers a shiny robot who’s just her size. With expertly paced dueling viewpoints, Hatke draws her introducing the robot to the world, E.T.-style. “You can pet him,” she says, handing the robot a cat (it doesn’t go well). Simultaneously, the robot management system notes that Little Robot is missing and dispatches a giant seek-and-recover robot to find it. Early on, the girl acquires a tool kit and becomes proficient with it, fixing Little Robot and, later, incapacitating the finder robot and its allies. The action heats up quickly, and readers will race ahead to see what will happen to robot and girl. It’s an adventure story, but it’s a maker story, too, with a special spotlight on the girl’s ingenuity. Ages 6–9. Agent: Judith Hansen, Hansen Literary Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

A Kirkus Best Middle Grade Book of 2015
A Texas Little Mavericks Title

"A tale of friendship and the joys of tinkering." —The New York Times

"The absolute best thing ever." —io9

"Girls meets robot. Robot meets girl. Girl and robot become unlikely best friends . . . and take on the world." —Entertainment Weekly

“Ben is awesome, and so are his books!” —Kazu Kibuishi, author of the Amulet series

“Tonight’s bedtime story.” —Rainbow Rowell, author of Fangirl

“Girl power at its best. A sure winner!” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“A pleasantly colorful adventure of discovery and friendship. Highly recommended.” —School Library Journal, starred review

“Subtly inventive in both vision and execution, this one begs to be read again and again.” —Booklist, starred review

“Well-plotted and -paced, this engaging story of loneliness, bravery, and friendship builds to a satisfying and sweet conclusion.” —The Horn Book

"Hatke’s got a knack for early elementary graphic novels, and the unnamed protagonist here is just as endearing, memorable, and clever as Zita (from Zita the Spacegirl)." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

From the Publisher

★ 2015-06-06
Possibilities abound for a small, brown-skinned girl with time, a tool belt, and a penchant for urban adventure. From the imaginative creator of Zita the Spacegirl comes this techy take on a warm friendship born in a junkyard. The short, round-faced protagonist escapes from a window of her trailer home clad only in a white nightshirt and heads for a neighbor's swingset, then to the junkyard—her daily routine, apparently. Unfettered and unsupervised by adults (or other humans), the protagonist dons her tool belt and soon discovers a little broken blue robot that has lost its way. Never at a loss for how to fix any machine, she tinkers with the robot, and suddenly, she has a running buddy. Together, they explore frogs, cats, sunsets, and more. But when the factory misses Little Robot and sends a large, scary-looking yellow robot to retrieve it, the main character needs more than a wrench to save her new friend and friendship. This delightful, nearly wordless graphic novel portrays a kid with gumption enough to take on big business and smarts enough to advise the factory's fix-it robot on repairs even though she just might be too young for kindergarten. Despite having little material means and few human connections, this kid creates life in the inanimate and fosters community where none could exist before. Girl power at its best. A sure winner! (Graphic novel. 3-12)

Kirkus Reviews