Weird Little Robots

Gr 3-5–Eleven-year-old Penny Rose’s new home is a bit lonely. She appreciates her kind and loving parents, but she doesn’t have any friends yet. She makes a wish while she’s working on building robots out of recycled materials and meets the girl who lives closest to her, Lark. Lark is kind of strange, but it turns out they have a lot more in common than Penny Rose thought. Lark likes to find materials and build birdhouses. When Lark sees Penny Rose’s robots, they decide to build a Robotown for the robots. Then the robots come to life. The girls agree that no one else should know about this, but when Penny Rose gets an invitation to join a secret science club, she’s intrigued enough to show the club members the robots. When Lark realizes what Penny Rose has done, she feels betrayed. This book is an unusual combination of modern technology and fairy tales. The language feels old-fashioned even though the subject matter is current. The friendship theme and connections to technology, persistence, and problem-solving will appeal to a variety of students.