LITTLE E

Two kids play with their robots.

After a conflict between two light-skinned kids, one blond, one brown-haired, on the title page that goes unexplained, the blond child is left to play all alone. The kid opens the closet and gets out E, a huge robot who “doesn’t know anything” but is still “so big and fun!” With help from a strange-looking but friendly light-skinned adult, the kid gets the robot up and running, hopping inside its torso, and making it walk down the street. The twist comes when E malfunctions and the adult helper is revealed to be another big automaton wearing a baggy person suit…powered, as it turns out, by the brown-haired child seen on the title page. The rough pencil illustrations are thoroughly detailed and immensely appealing to the eye, a muted palette conveying energy and emotion. The story, translated from Chinese, is an intriguing one, both realistic and fantastical, but the prose is lacking the grace and clarity of the illustrations—it gets the story across but with some awkward transitions and blandness that could use a little more verve. Still, this spare tale about two children and their clunky mechanical buddies will appeal to kids looking for an unexpected friendship story. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Strange but satisfying.