Robots these days not only slither—they roll, crawl, fly in space, and “flick their tails” to “dive as deep as whales”—not to mention work in factories, fight fires, bark, meow, and even recognize facial expressions: “Look at what these robots do—smile at them, they’ll smile at you!” The authors back up each rhymed claim with a specific example from the present or near future, including a slithering “snakebot,” the deep-sea Odyssey II, and the lowly grass-clipping Robomower. Gorton mixes scenes of smooth-bodied people and machines with highly simplified schematics. It hardly seems like science, but it is, as well as a salutary reminder for younger moviegoers that real robots have better things to do than turn into red-eyed, rampaging killers. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-7)
