When Clackentown wakes up to a “blizzard for the record books,” school is canceled and all the little bots rush out to play, “remote control completely lost.” The dry humor in Reynolds’s rhyming verse comes out in both vocabulary (the robot children brush “fenders” instead of hair, the wind’s “like a robot trash compactor”) and situation (the kids make ice sculptures “thanks, in part, / to chainsaw hands,” to warm up after their day of play they drink “cocoa spiked with axle grease”). Barneda provides a cast of mechanical characters in a variety of models; in addition to the chainsaw hands, some kids have caterpillar treads instead of feet, and the dog rolls on little wheels (though it’s too bad the only identified girl is depicted, oh-so-predictably, as pink). This gearhead flight of fancy should have broad appeal. (Picture book. 3-6)
