House of Robots

Gr 4–6—Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez is subject to the most awful, most embarrassing thing ever: Egghead, his mother's brilliant but socially inept robot will be joining him in fifth grade. Instead of being thrilled by his robo-bro, Sammy is mortified as "E" tries to enhance school bus boarding safety, fact-checks the teachers, bear-hugs Sammy at inappropriate times, and even causes a fire. Listeners also meet Sammy's home-schooled sister Maddie, whose autoimmune disorder makes her susceptible to infection, and his "second best friend" Trip, who jealously acquires a robot of his own. Jack Patterson is an excellent narrator who deploys a variety of voices, including a distinctive one for E. The 75 short chapters (most between two and three minutes) are full of tween humor, funny robot descriptions, and multicultural and nontraditional characters (both human and robotic.) An included PDF file contains 165 of Juliana Neufeld's illustrations.