Review by Booklist Review
The Explorers series taps into a kid's innate curiosity with popular topics and easily digestible nuggets of information. Robots introduces everything from the sure-to-be-coveted domestic robot, which can do pesky household chores; submersible robots, unaffected by deep-sea pressure; and the Mars rover. Each robot, futuristic as it may look, is being used today in one capacity or another (robot pet cat, anyone?). What's unique about these titles is the interactive component: there are four different color buttons appearing throughout, each representing a topic (environment, record breakers, and so forth). Kids use these buttons as a guide to leap forward and backward through the book, choose-your-own-adventure-style, with a summary page at the end. The design of these titles has the feel of a DK book, although less frenetic, and the self-guided approach to learning may work better for inquisitive kids than report writers.--Kelley, Ann Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Horn Book Review
The varied illustrations for the loosely organized information here include double-page-spread scenes and smaller examples of domestic, industrial, and exploratory robots and parts, some overlaid with numbered keys. Occasional icons point readers to additional pages for information, but these are sometimes more confusing than helpful. Overall the content is accurate if somewhat scattershot. "More to explore" facts are appended. Ind. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
This haphazard jumble of military, domestic, space, toy and industrial robots is unlikely to draw young technophiles for more than a quick once-over. The design is dizzying: Crammed over and around pictures of robots in visually overstuffed mixes and even composites of photographic and photorealistic digital elements, scattered blocks of text in different point sizes extol the range of robotic capabilities. Robots that are actually functional now are not differentiated from those still in the experimental or concept stages, and the commentary is often misleading--"To communicate feelings, androids have mechanisms in their heads"--or too vague to be meaningful: "Robot animals move in the same way as real animals"; "The ultimate medical robots operate on human patients." These and many other statements cry out for explanation and clarification. Some readers may find the pervasive focus on robots with cute features, from Sega's "Dream Cat Venus" to a Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR) that sports little ursine ears, off-putting, if not downright creepy. Furthermore, there are no source notes or leads to further information. Substandard nonfiction series fare, aimed at a slightly older audience than the publisher's Kingfisher Young Knowledge entry on the topic (2003) but a clean miss. (Nonfiction. 8-10)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
