The Bot That Scott Built

by Kim Norman

When Scott builds a bot, a bippity-bot, sparks fly . . . and his entire classroom goes wild. Before long, fiery ants and carnivorous plants, a freaky frog, a big-bellied boa, and an exploding "volcano" have wreaked total havoc. Can Scott's bot, which started it all, manage the mess? Cheers for the handy hero! A cumulative story with fun that grows and grows and GROWS.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Robots, Science, Storytime, School, Animals

32 pages, Hardcover

First published July 5, 2016

About the author

Kim Norman is the author of more than a dozen children’s books published by Sterling, Scholastic and two Penguin imprints. Titles include Ten on the Sled, (Sterling) which spent weeks on Barnes and Noble’s Top Ten bestseller list and has been released in Korean and German editions as well as appearing in Scholastic Book Fairs in schools around North America. I Know a Wee Piggy, was reviewed in the New York Times, and is listed on the Texas “2x2 Reading List,” as well being offered by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Kim has a long history of theater & musical performing, which she enjoys including in her school visits and presentations. Songs and videos on her website, kimnormanbooks.com

Reviews

[Shainlock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this book for my nephew. It has his name in it so I thought he would like it and the very bright illustrations and the way that each thing not only rhymed, but built on the thing before it and added to it.
It's cute.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome kids book that my wife found for our nephews birthday. My wife is great at finding treasures like these.

[Tonja Drecker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of gizmos, gadgetry and whimsical rhyme, this science fair adventure places inventions in a whole new light. . .and little constructors will love it.

The book starts before the story really even gets underway. Hammers, nuts, bolts, propellers and many other parts and do-dads, which bring small inventor's imaginations into swing, decorate the inside of both covers. When the title page appears, Scott is already drilling and building, caught up in his own construction world. And the scene is set.

It's the day of the science fair, and the kids have set up experiments through-out the room, things young scientists might even recognize. On center stage, taking his turn in the spotlight, is Scott and his bippity bot--and saying that already brings a smile to the face. A short explanation through rhyme soon turns into disaster. And it mounts and mounts into humorous chaos pure. These rhymes never skip a beat and dance around wonderful word combinations like 'the freaky frog from the bathtub bog...'. By the end, it's a hilarious mouthful.

It's easy for young listeners to understand, and fun to follow the silly phrases, while the illustrations offer the perfect backdrop. They are colorful, hold lovely details, which call for attention again and again, and incorporate the emotions and situations well enough that just flipping through the pages will tell a story all on its own.

Young listeners and readers discover science from a whole new angle, which is sure to inspire the creator in them with all of its fun. And if nothing else, it's simply a joy to read, and not just for the kids.

I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Rebecca Gomez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts out confusing, and I think it might be because the illustrations in the beginning don't really show us what seems to be happening in the text. Why did the kids need calming? What happened to cause the ants to escape? It's unclear. Other than that, the text is mostly fun and kids will probably enjoy the science aspect of this book.

[Lisa D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book!!

[Tammi Sauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Norman has done it again with this fun take on The House that Jack Built!

[Knitcookwrite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun take on The House That Jack Built. Quite sing songy and good for storytime. Loved how it wrapped up.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

In many ways, I am over "House that Jack Built" books, but I liked the setting and illustrations of this book.

[Viviane Elbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a spin-off of This is the House that Jack built, except that it is a robot that Scott built for a school science fair.

Weird things happen during the science fair, but Bot and Scott save the day.

My kids generally enjoy science fair and robots in books and I think they enjoyed the colorful illustrations.

However, it wasn't their favorite. I also found a few lines to be tough to say.

[createitlibrarian (Amanda) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is similar to "The House that Jack Built" only with a robot & science theme. This book is good with introducing kids to STEM vocabulary but it may be better for Kindergarten to 1st graders than it would be for preschool storytime age children. Although the storyteller can always just tell the story in her own words and shorten it, still providing the vocab.

[Natalee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Library read aloud #2

Reminds me of those icebreaker games where everyone keeps adding an item to bring on the hypothetical road trip, and each person has to remember what the people before them said. By the end of this story, the sentences are superrr long winded and the kids absolutely love it haha.

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting modernization of "The House that Jack Built."
Uses a Science Day setting to connect the events in the chain.
Illustrations are colorful and interesting to study.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

The text builds and builds, and kids who like gizmos & gadgets will have fun with this one! 3.5 stars

[Cairie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of books that add a sentence per page so by the end you've repeated some sentences over and over and over and over again. This is one of those!

[jess ~has abandoned GR~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun one to read aloud.

[Kenson and kirra · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book had a lot of rhymes. it had pretty neat pics. my favorite part was the venus flytraps. i saw those at the zoo once

[Garrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sing-songy book about a science fair gone awry. There's a decent moral in here about the power of science and engineering to help us solve problems, but the story arc feels underdeveloped.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same rhyme style as The House That Jack Built

[Lorene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever and silly, but with a nice hands-on touch.

[Kelly Mangan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ambitious story structure. My kiddo had a hard time following it, though.

[Megan Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun STEM-themed read aloud that mimics "this is the house that Jack built."

[Bant · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE IT. SO CUTE. FUN TO READ. Everything!

[Jen (chekherjoy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. The building story is cool. But I'm not sure I'm alright with the first thing happening is all of the class freaking out because Scott built a robot. Are we afraid of technology? The robot hasn't even done anything yet. It just exists, standing in a corner. It's not a "I'm gonna lose the science fair" freak out, it's a "the robot is gonna kill us all" freak out. The rest of the science fair projects are cute. One has a Tesla coil, so totally awesome. Spolier: The robot does end up saving the day by conviently having all the right tools to combat the problems the class freak out caused. So was Scott spying on his classmates's projects? Did he intend this chaos to happen? So many unanswered questions. Also, I would rather see Scott build the robot or otherwise interact with it more. I picked this book up for the robot.

In the end, it's entertaining and a children's book. It has lots of science and fun. I think kids would still enjoy this and wouldn't be asking the kind of questions I was. Yay science!

[Alison]

Wowza! The title is great. My favorite sequence of words: "This is the boa, escaped from its cage, that draped like a microphone cord from the stage..." A timely tale of school Science Day chaos.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A humorous cumulative tale (a la The House that Jack Built) where a boy's science fair project creates a big commotion, but he is able to reprogram it to clean up the mess.

[Kate Puleo Unger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is written in the style of The House That Jack Built. Christopher read it to me, and he had a little trouble with some of the words, but he did really well with the rhyming. Scott's class is having a science fair. He's built a robot, but some of the other experiments are going awry: the volcano, the frog, the snake, the ant farm, etc. We had a lot of fun reading this book. And of course the robot saves the day.

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[Juliana Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scott built a robot for the school science fair. But he's not the only one with really cool science activities. There's a snake, a volcano, an ant farm, a carnivorous plant, and more. Each one builds on the actions of the one before causing a wild and funny commotion. In the end, Scott returns everything back to normal with his cool and inventive robot.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scott has built a bot and when he shows it off in class things start to go haywire. From ants to boas to volcanoes, this story is full of events set off by the bot but who will stop the chaos? Can Scott help fix things after all? This is a fun story and guaranteed laughs. Great for story time sit downs.

[Linnea Frank]

Science fair gone awry! Can Scot's bot save the day? Follows the classic "House that Jack Built" cumulative tale format.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

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