Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman and illus. by Dan Yaccarino.  Ages 1+. Knopf Books for Young Readers. April 2012. 32 pages.  ISBN: 978-0375867569 $16.99

Why Am I Reviewing this Book? Because this is one of my son’s new favorite books.

The Short:  I’ve seen a lot of people recommending this book on various blogs and so I finally checked it out from the library.  It is such a sweet book about friendship.  It is simple and happy.  All of the characters are good.  It promotes goodness and joy and if you haven’t read this book yet, please do.  We highly, highly recommend this book.

The Long:  Boy and Bot meet and become friends.  While playing Bot suffers a blow to the back that turns him off.  Boy isn’t sure what to do so he brings Bot home and tries to help him recover.  Bot is then accidentally turned back on by his parents while Boy is sleeping.  Bot isn’t sure what’s happened so he brings Boy back to his house and tries to help him recover.  Bot is just about to attempt to install a new battery when Bot’s inventor intervenes and explains to Bot that Boy doesn’t need a new battery.  Boy wakes up, and while he isn’t sure where he is, he is relieved to see that Bot is okay.  Inventor brings Boy back home to his parents, and Bot and Boy live happily ever after playing together.

Fantastic story!  The illustrations are fun and the characters are creatively and skillfully done.  The text is simple and the illustrations work well to add details to the text.  I loved reading this to my son and doing a robot voice.  My son has been practicing his robot voice after reading this book and it is coming along nicely.  My son now knows that affirmative means yes and I got a kick out of him saying, “Affirmative,” yesterday when I asked him a question.  He also learned the word: malfunction and knows that it means to be broken or not work properly.

My son is also enjoying acting this book out and he’s been a broken robot that I have to wake up.  That usually results in tickles — which my son has pointed out — is not in the book.

I’m digressing now, but really you need to know that this is a sweet and wonderful book about friendship.  I love it and my son adores it!  We’ll be reading this one over and over again.  Also, there is nothing I feel compelled to edit or change when reading this book to him.  It’s a wonderful book!

Where Obtained:  Public Library.  Placed on hold after reading some reviews of this book.

FTC Disclosures: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” If you click on the link and purchase the book, I will receive an affiliate commission.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Author/Illustrator Websites:  

• http://amedyckman.blogspot.com/
  
• http://www.danyaccarino.com/ys/booklist.html

Some of My Favorite Reviews of this Book: (This one has a lot of great reviews.  Easy to understand why.)

• http://taralazar.com/2012/04/10/boy-bot-you-laughing-you-loving-you-winning/
  
• https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ame-dyckman/boy-bot/
• http://presentinglenore.blogspot.com/2012/05/apocalypsies-love-book-review-boy-bot.html (Author interview)
• http://mrschureads.blogspot.com/2012/04/boy-bot-by-ame-dyckman-and-dan.html (Trailer for book + Author interview)
• http://100scopenotes.com/2012/04/10/review-boy-bot-by-ame-dyckman/
• http://www.kidlitfrenzy.com/2012/04/book-review-boy-bot.html

I’m linking this post up with Read-Aloud Thursday hosted over at Hope is the Word.  This happens every Thursday and I hope you’ll link up a book you like.