ROBOTS EVERYWHERE

Here the world goes not to the dogs, but to the tin folk, as a delighted young narrator sees them everywhere: “Robots riding on the bus. / Buying stuff at Bolts ‘R’ Us. / Playing catch with sewer grates. / Eating nuts off metal plates.” Hoffman fills each scene with daffy-looking, popeyed, can-headed mechanicals, at home, work, and play—then adds gleeful sight gags, like moviegoers chowing down on vats of ball bearings, or a “Bless This Ohm” wall sampler. There’s plenty of “clank,” without a trace of “clunk” in this rib-tickling double debut; readers, too, will be riveted. (Picture book. 5-8)