CITY IN PERIL!

Curtis is a walking, talking lighthouse-headed robot who protects the coast of Robot City with his trusty human crew, Ali and Steve. When an oil rig out at sea catches fire, Curtis rushes to the rescue and then investigates the fishy mystery of the causes of this near disaster. Mystery is the main focus of the equally engaging noirish tale of Rod Robot and his human detective partner, Mike, featured in Rust Attack, which publishes simultaneously (ISBN: 978-0-7636-4594-6). Award-winning picture-book author and illustrator Collicutt plays to his strengths with his new graphic adventures. Though the illustrations are a bit on the dark side, they are full of retro–comic-book–style action and classic movie-serial banter. The robot characters look straight out of ’50s sci-fi movies, but they are nicely integrated into a multiracial cast of human characters. Good, low-violence fun for slightly grown-up fans of the author’s machine-centric picture books. It’s likely a good thing there are more volumes to follow, including a guide to the robots of Robot City and a book of posters. Multiples are not a bad idea. (Graphic fiction. 8-11)