And the Robot Went..., written by Michelle Robinson, reviewed by Klaudia Janek

Student Reviewer: Waseem A.

Summary: The book is about a robot who is discovered by curious creatures. Their curiosity leads them to mess with the robot, pulling levers, clicking witches, and even clobbering it. The creatures have descriptive names, all including rhyme, and every time they touch the robot in a different way, it creates a new sound. At the end of the day, they are able to turn it on completely, and it goes home.

Straight Talk for Librarians: This book can be used for younger elementary readers, in libraries or classrooms. The artwork is playful and very busy. The reader can see that the curiosity of the various creatures led them to help turn on the robot. There is playful rhyme, alliteration, and repetition throughout the story. With each new character(s) introduced, they add an action that the character does, that rhymes with their name, in addition to all the actions before. Onomatopoeia is used, as the Robot creates different sounds. The book is a good way for younger readers to learn about these different literary devices. Younger audiences can relate to this picture book as well, as it is common that they discover objects that are new to them, and feel the need to touch and mess with it. The book pushes for curiosity in a discrete and playful way. This can be viewed as a STEM book and could be a read-aloud because of the rhyming. It could also be a good choice for independent reading. It’s a fun book where animals, a human and a robot meet in their quest to get the robot working.