The Robot Alphabet

The Robot Alphabet, Cover, FullerWhile browsing around Amazon, I stumbled upon The Robot Alphabet by Amanda Baehr Fuller. The cover was so whimsical, that I immediately downloaded the book.

Amanda is a professional designer and illustrator (she has worked on comics for Scholastic and cartoons for Nickelodeon). Her whimsical illustrations drew me (and my boys) in. The robots are funny and quirky; they each have personalities so you can imagine the back story behind the pictures. Although my boys are well past alphabet book age, they both enjoyed looking at the pictures and were inspired to draw their own alphabet robots.


I’m especially fond of the U is for Umbrella robot. His two tiny robot friends are sitting on his head holding a telescoping umbrella. A little homage to Totoro? We had fun speculating about the relationship between the three robots and how they got stuck in the rain.

I thought it was particularly clever that the featured item is the same color as the word (the word ‘Umbrella’ and the umbrella itself are both teal) to helps kids identify which part of the picture is being described.

Amanda has some samples of her work on her website, Mama Robot.

In other news, we are about 80% of the way through The Amulet of Samarkand (audiobook) and we are still thoroughly enjoying it. Simon Jones (the narrator) brings so much to the book. His sardonic Bartimaeus regularly makes me laugh as I’m driving. I know a book is good when it bleeds into real life. While walking around NYC, we saw a burly man standing protectively near a magical-looking doorway. My husband whispered in my ear, “On the 6th plane, he’s not an ordinary guard.”

What’s on the TBR pile this week?
I have to finish Jayawardhana’s Strange New Worlds (NF, science) before my interlibrary loan expires.
And James Dashner’s The Death Cure (dystopian, YA) finally came in so I’m going to read that. Fingers crossed that it has a satisfying ending!
But mostly I am going to be driving kids to swim team, tennis lesson, dive team, gymnastics, and swim meets. Phew.

For more It’s Monday, What Are You Reading, visit Sheila at Book Journey and Kellee and Jen over at Teach Mentor Texts.

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9 Responses to The Robot Alphabet

  1. Ruth Ayres says:

    THE ROBOT ALPHABET looks like a treasure. Thanks for sharing!

  2. Linda Baie says:

    Thanks for telling about The Robot Alphabet-looks great. And, can’t believe you have still another YA dystopian I haven’t heard of. There are so many, I wonder if the sales distribution thins. My children didn’t do swimming except lots of lessons, but my neighbor’s girls did. I admire you for being that parent who gets the kids there, does the meets, etc. Big job, Katya! Aah-summertime!

  3. Love the sound (and look) of those two robot books. You sound like a mama on the go, this summer. Is the audiobook happening in the car? Our family audiobooks tend to happen mainly on road trips, or when someone’s sick.

  4. Stacey says:

    The Robot Alphabet looks fantastic. Don’t you just love stumbling upon treasures when searching on Amazon?

  5. Maria says:

    I love the varying styles of alphabet books. This one looks neat!

  6. Jen says:

    I love all the robot books I have read recently and this one looks great! I’m excited to look for it. I’m curious to hear what you think of the Death Cure! I felt like I didn’t get answers until the very itsy bitsy end. Such a crazy story. Enjoy!

  7. Tara says:

    Is the Dashner book a sequal to Mazerunner? The alphabet book looks adorable!

  8. MariaSelke @mselke01 says:

    The robot book looks adorable! I love alphabet books. It’s interesting how many dystopian books are out there, isn’t it? I have so many on my TBR list.

  9. Earl says:

    I don’t know why I like reading alphabet books but I do. Some are just so wonderfully creative and I can see how kids would want to learn more. I’ll have to check out The Robot Alphabet!