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James Patterson is one of the most prolific authors today. He co-authors a number of series with up and coming authors. Most feature his trademark of short, attention grabbing chapters. While famous for his adult series of Alex Cross novels, James has a significant range of young adult books, including the Middle School series and this edition from the House of Robots series. In his spare time, Patterson is involved in a lot of charitable work supporting youth literacy, independent bookstores and education scholarships. It makes it very easy to support a best-selling author who is passionate about engaging children in reading!
House of Robots: Robot Revolution may seem lengthy at 316 pages, but the story is broken into short chapters with many illustrations throughout. At the heart of the story is Sammy, who lives with his sister and parents in a robot-filled house. His mother is an inventor, who has designed a number of household robots. One robot, E, has a special purpose: he attends school for Sammy’s sister, Maddie. Maddie has an auto-immune illness that prevents her from leaving the house. As the story starts Sammy’s parents are distracted,and the robots are not working properly. This causes trouble for Sammy at home and school.
In many ways this is quite a sweet story. While it is clear that the parents are very busy, and that Maddy’s illness is a serious household concern, the story’s focus is on Sammy and school. The characters are well defined, and stop short of being cliched – I was left with a very sympathetic view of a busy family who look out for each other. The story includes a number of amusing robot-related disasters, and my ten-year-old daughter was often heard laughing out loud while reading this book. We have since sought out the other books in this series.
It is a very entertaining read, and one that is suitable for children aged 9-12.
A review from Hannah (10)
Robots! You would think that they help the house run better, right? Right!? Well, not really. These robots are sick of their job but support a little girl (Maddie). They adore her but rebel because they think E, a robot who goes to school for Maddie, gets all the best care.
A science fair must be won, however a snobby, rich and intelligent boy is crushing hopes and dreams by using perfection as a base for all his work. Can Sammy beat the new kid and save his sister from her prison in her room because of a disease? Can his best friend stay loyal all the way? Can they see the new kid make his biggest mistake yet in front of public, or will Sammy be forever humiliated by his whole school? Find out the answers in the book!
I love this book and I have read it over and over again.
I give this book 8/10 bunny power!
Book review by Emma Rutherford and Hannah Wong-Ming
House of Robots: Robot Revolution
Written by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein
Published by Arrow
ISBN 9781784754242
You might think that the intended readers for this book, ie: intermediate school kids, would be too old for a story about a mouse, indeed the heft of it alone implies they would have outgrown little animal stories. However even though there are illustrations scattered throughout, this is no cutesie chapterbook for littlies. True, the protagonist is a mouse but he is no ordinary mouse; for one thing Isaiah is blue. And he can read. And in his own words, is “… very smart, with a very advanced (dare I say urbane?) vocabulary…”. He is also a very timid and scared mouse. The youngest in his family of 96 siblings, he is separated from them as they all run for their lives from The Horrible Place and for the first time ever has to rely on his own instinct and smarts for survival.
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