cover image ROBOTS EVERYWHERE

ROBOTS EVERYWHERE

Denny Hebson, , illus. by Todd Hoffman. . Walker, $15.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-8027-8892-4

Author and illustrator both make their children's book debuts in this mildly funny look at the land of robots. They pair rhyming couplets with scenes of androids engaged in human activities (watching a movie in a theater, riding a bus, sitting in a classroom). Some of the verse has pizzazz (among the robots' pastimes are "Buying stuff at Bolts 'R' Us" and "rusting down at Robot Beach"), yet the book's loopy comedy derives primarily from the particulars of Hoffman's full-spread cartoon illustrations. At the movies, robots with "springs for hair" snack on ball bearings and sip "coila," while one sports an "I Lug NY" T-shirt; a birthday cake features the greeting, "Happy Boltday"; at mealtime, a jar of "nuts" (as in nuts and bolts) on the table advertises "more iron!"; and a barber dries hair with a blow torch. The text's opening line "I see robots everywhere" is also its last line, where it accompanies a picture that explains the preceding oddball images: a youngster is shown sound asleep, clutching toy robots, while androids grace a poster on the bedroom wall, a light switch and even his pajamas. A well-oiled excursion to a quirky—and, yes, irony-rich—world. Ages 3-7. (Mar.)