ROBOT THE ROBOT IS HERE TO HELP!

A robot learns how to get in touch with their own feelings and finds ways to help a lonely newcomer, a hungry extraterrestrial pet, and a pair of grown-ups with rigid views on binary gender roles.

Wheeling about the orbiting Science Outpost B-333, looking for ways to be helpful, Robot resembles R2-D2 in the very simple cartoon illustrations, though they have both a face and a habit of changing color in each chapter. They first have a comfy talk about personal reactions with Dr. Grbzl, a froglike therapist, then an amusing conversation with two scowling guards aboard a visiting spacecraft: “Are you a boy or a girl?” one asks. “No,” Robot responds. Next, learning through trial and error that a cute bunnylike creature is actually a ravening “vexzor” whose “favorite foods were scientists and crewmembers,” Robot finds an acceptable dietary substitute, and lastly they make Yuli, a new cloud person from planet Cumuli who communicates only in Cumulan Sign Language, welcome with an overture of friendship. Robot is assigned no pronoun until adopting “they” in the course of arguing with the guards. Occasional “science words” like “assessment” or “binary” are bolded and defined in a glossary at the end. Early readers have come a long way from the topics and tropes of Amelia Bedelia, and though in vocabulary these four miniepisodes stand at a relatively advanced level, emergent readers will be comfortable with both their format and their themes and messages.

A book that is as helpful as its protagonist.