Because if I leave you understanding one thing today it is this: This may well contain the craziest picture book construction from a major publisher I have EVER seen. And when I try to think of a picture that combines these elements (meta storytelling / new and weird / technology permeating everything we do) no book typifies all of this better or with as much panache as Robo-Sauce.

The combination of relaxed picture books standards (example: comics and meta storytelling are a-okay!), publishers willing to try something new and weird, and a world where technology and visual learning plays a heavy hand in our day-to-day lives yields creative attempts hitherto unknown or impossible to author/illustrators as recently as ten years ago.

We’re living in a visual learner’s world. What other art form for kids can say as much? You don’t exactly have five-year-olds mooning over Kukla, Fran and Ollie these days, right (sorry, mom)? But hand them Goodnight Moon and all is well. They were beautiful, intricately crafted, and many of them are memorable and pertinent to child readers today. Not prone to exaggeration or anything, are you? But honestly, I think I could make a case for it. When I whip out the old we’re-living-in-a-golden-age-of-picture-book-creation argument with colleagues and friends, they humor what I’m sure they consider to be my hyperbole. And yes, there's a nifty surprise inside that has to be experienced to be believed. This is a fantastic book - a must read for robot-fans, kids, those-who-are-kids-at-heart - pretty much everyone. The only bad part is you might get lonely and start to wish everybody else was a robot too! It turns out, there is a recipe that will turn you into a REAL ROBOT!Īnd it's included in this book! Okay, so good luck getting kookamonga flakes (gluten-free, nonetheless!) and baroney balls - even Amazon was no help there! But IF you can find the fixings, you're in for a terrific surprise - being a robot is even cooler than you might imagine. And this year, 'Santa' brought me ROBO-SAUCE. So, I've learned to take care of that myself. sadly, books almost never appear beneath my tree.

A snow storm blows through rarely, and usually only when my husband is not home to do the shoveling. I've never gotten the first thing, though neither have the other 99.9 million people who wish for it. Peace on earth and a snow storm now and then*

Adam rubin and daniel salmieri