Books about...robots
We're charging our battery, and now we're full of energy
My robot research started a few years before my son was born. For a conference in Tokyo, I was asked to find speakers who could talk and demonstrate robots. We ended up at Miraikan (the wonderful National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation), where there is a daily Asimo demonstration (Honda’s humanlike robot). That afternoon, we were joined by Tomotaka Takahashi to tell us about the robots he has created (including the adorable RoBoHon walking, talking smartphone). It was a fascinating project to work on, and so interesting to see what’s involved behind the scenes.
Fast forward to today. My son has borrowed a Barbapapa book from the school library for the 10th consecutive week! Why? His favourite character is Barbibul, the bungling inventor. Barbibuls mishaps and creations have sparked many breakfast-table discussions about the robots and machines my son plans to build for various day-to-day tasks. Alongside the Barbapapa stories, we both enjoy the robot books we’ve acquired over the years.
The absolute best children’s book substack account, Can We Read, featured a great roundup of picture books about Robots in this 2023 post. We tried a few, with Robo-Sauce being a big hit here!
Here are some of our favourites:
Robot Rumpus by Sean Taylor and Ross Collins
We stumbled across this book when visiting my nephews a few years ago. It was a school reading book for the Year 1s. The word “rumpus” was a new one at home after reading Where the Wild Things Are, so my son was interested in this book, and it has been one of the most read books we have! It’s silly and boisterous, and the list of the different robots on the inner covers is fantastic. We talk about Wash-bot, Cook-bot and Dry-bot many many times a week!
Sean Taylor writes some wonderful books. We like Wild Summer and Busy Spring. But I think this combination with Ross Collins is a real winner! Ross Collins is an incredible illustrator (and writer), and we’ve enjoyed every book of his that we’ve tried. ‘What does an anteater eat?’ ‘I am a tiger’ and ‘There’s a bear on my chair’ are all brilliant.
Robo-Sauce by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri
This was included in the Can We Read list and did not disappoint. A truly unique concept, the story is about a potion to create robots and ticks along nicely until…halfway through the book, the robots take over! There are foldouts to transform the book, and it morphs into a different story. This is a fun book to read together, but a bit too complex for bedtime! We keep it with our toys; reading it together is great when we don’t feel like sitting quietly. It is a very engaging book that my neighbour's kids enjoy, too. I love the vibrant colours on the cover.
That’s not my robot by Fiona Watt and Rachel Wells
This is part of the Usborne That’s not my…. series. These books are brilliant for babies; surprisingly, after all this time, they still get picked for bedtime stories today. By now, my son is so familiar with the books that he likes to “read” them himself to me and our cat!
No-Bot, the robot with no bottom! by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet
This is brand new for us. I got it as part of a bundle of second hand books and am so glad we found it. Seriously funny! This was a hit from the very first page. Bernard the robot loses his bottom on a swing. Each time he almost tracks it down, it moves on; a bird uses it in its nest, a bear uses it as a drum. So many silly situations had us laughing all the way through and then immediately reading it all over again.
I’ve just seen there’s a sequel…No-Bot the robot’s new bottom…
Are there any robot books you enjoy?
We absolutely love the no-bot robot! Harry constantly talks about him and we often imagine where he could have misplaced his bottom :-) great conversation topic! 🤣
I love that photo of RoBoHon -- it looks amazing!
And thanks for the shoutout -- I appreciate it. Have you read Benjamin McFadden and the Robot Babysitter by Tim Bush? We love that one.