Ultrabot's First Playdate

by Josh Schneider, Josh Schneider (Illustrator)

Overview

Boy + Bot meets School's First Day of School in this hilarious and reassuring take on first experiences and making new friends, from a Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winner.

Ultrabot is a big robot with a big problem. Its professor is planning a playdate with Becky Tingle, the little girl from next door. But Ultrabot has never been on a playdate, and it doesn’t know Becky. What if she’s mean? What if she breaks all of Ultrabot’s toys? What if she won’t share?

Packed with loads of fun details and visual humor, this reassuring friendship story speaks to the shy giant robot in all of us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781328490131
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/16/2019
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD480L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Josh Schneider is the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award-winning creator of Tales for Very Picky Eaters and many popular picture books, including Princess Sparkle-Heart Gets a Makeover, Everybody Sleeps (But Not Fred), and Kid Amazing vs. The Blob. His first book, You'll Be Sorry, was named "Book That Provides Best Ammunition to Parents Weary of Warning Their Kids About Socking Their Siblings" by Publishers Weekly magazine. Josh lives in Chicago with his wife, Dana.

Josh Schneider is the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award-winning creator of Tales for Very Picky Eaters and many popular picture books, including Princess Sparkle-Heart Gets a Makeover, Everybody Sleeps (But Not Fred), and Kid Amazing vs. The Blob. His first book, You'll Be Sorry, was named "Book That Provides Best Ammunition to Parents Weary of Warning Their Kids About Socking Their Siblings" by Publishers Weekly magazine. Josh lives in Chicago with his wife, Dana.

Editorial Reviews

07/01/2019

Ultrabot, a gigantic, rust-colored robot with a barrel-shaped torso and a spindly antenna, lives with its human professor in a “top-secret laboratory on Primrose Lane.” When the professor arranges a playdate for Ultrabot with someone called Becky, it panics: “What if Becky was mean?” Ultrabot envisions Becky as a giant, hairy monster with sharp claws and beady eyes, but Becky turns out to be a gentle human girl who wears lots of barrettes in her hair and is unfazed by her unusual playmate. Illustrations show a playful contrast between the laboratory’s sterile environment, filled with tanks and gadgets, and the homier accoutrements of Ultrabot’s bedroom (it lies worriedly tucked under a patchwork quilt). And Schneider inserts subtle visual humor into every scene of this winning friendship story—both Ultrabot and Becky prefer their sandwiches just so (bread crusts removed for one, enormous metal beams welded off for the other)—as human and robot find out just how much they have in common. Ages 4–7. (July)

Publishers Weekly

? "A delightful, picture-perfect playdate." —Kirkus, STARRED review "[A] delightful tale about the anxiety of making new friends"—Chicago Tribune "Schneider inserts subtle visual humor into every scene of this winning friendship story." —Publishers Weekly “[T]he tongue-in-cheek text is counterpoint to hilarious digitally enhanced line and watercolor illustrations…. It may take several readings to glean all of Schneider’s visual gags." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books "[I]ntriguing, meticulous, and detail-rich mixed-media illustrations....Kids will crack up at the playdate’s aftermath; grownups will feel the professor’s pain; all will happily revisit this extraordinary playdate over and over"—The Horn Book —

From the Publisher

★ 2019-03-17
Despite initial anxiety, a robot experiences his first playdate with the kid next door.

Ultrabot and its professor live on Primrose Lane in a "little top-secret laboratory." When the professor announces that Becky, the girl next door, will be coming for a playdate, Ultrabot's response is "NEGATIVE." Concerned Becky might be "mean" or break its toys, Ultrabot has difficulty sleeping. After Becky arrives, Ultrabot's initial shyness evaporates when she offers to share her ball and they bond during a ball-bouncing contest. Becky shows Ultrabot how to draw a cat, they have sandwiches, and Ultrabot shares its toys with Becky. When Becky leaves, Ultrabot's eager for their next playdate! Precise, detailed, linear pen-and-ink illustrations washed with pale watercolor and finished in Photoshop add a hilarious dimension to this seemingly normal, uneventful playdate. The visual incongruity between Ultrabot's enormous, hangar-size lab with sliding roof panel and observatory next to Becky's modest Cape rouses instant curiosity. The disparity between Ultrabot, a giant, red robot who plays with real planes and jeeps, and diminutive Becky, a little white girl with a ball, couldn't be greater. Very clever use of varying viewpoints intensifies their dramatic differences while marvelous visual details reinforce their similarities as they play together like any kids.

A delightful, picture-perfect playdate. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews