What do you think?
Cats vs. Robots #2
Cats vs. Robots #2: Now with Fleas!: A Middle Grade Story About STEM, Heart, and Planetary Battle for Kids
#1 New York Times bestselling author Margaret Stohl and Lewis Peterson are back for book two in the hilarious middle grade series!
Book one of the Cats vs. Robots series was praised for its "mix of tech and kitties, STEM and heart" by the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.
In book two, the intergalactic war between the Feline Empire and Robot Federation has escalated to the brink of war. Cats and robots are preparing to converge on Earth and battle it out for the Infinity Engine. And the inventors and safekeepers of that powerful weapon? The Wengrod family.
Max, Min, their parents, and cousin Javi, all know the stakes are higher than ever as the fate of their planet rests on their shoulders.
The family creates an elite swarm of robotic fleas to attempt infiltrating both sides and halt attacks, but will peaceful persistence be enough? Will they ever rescue their friend Obi? Will Huggs and his sidekick, Vice President Parker P. Pants (VP P.P. Pants), with all their power and influence, prevail in the end?
Margaret Stohl and Lewis Peterson bring hilarity, heart, and the case for tolerance in the second book of the Cats vs. Robots series!
Book one of the Cats vs. Robots series was praised for its "mix of tech and kitties, STEM and heart" by the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.
In book two, the intergalactic war between the Feline Empire and Robot Federation has escalated to the brink of war. Cats and robots are preparing to converge on Earth and battle it out for the Infinity Engine. And the inventors and safekeepers of that powerful weapon? The Wengrod family.
Max, Min, their parents, and cousin Javi, all know the stakes are higher than ever as the fate of their planet rests on their shoulders.
The family creates an elite swarm of robotic fleas to attempt infiltrating both sides and halt attacks, but will peaceful persistence be enough? Will they ever rescue their friend Obi? Will Huggs and his sidekick, Vice President Parker P. Pants (VP P.P. Pants), with all their power and influence, prevail in the end?
Margaret Stohl and Lewis Peterson bring hilarity, heart, and the case for tolerance in the second book of the Cats vs. Robots series!
352 pages, Hardcover
First published October 22, 2019
About the author
Margaret Stohl
124 books6,037 followersMargaret Stohl is the #1 New York Times, PW, USA Today, LA Times and Internationally bestselling co-author or author of twelve books, including the BEAUTIFUL CREATURES NOVELS, the DANGEROUS CREATURES NOVELS, the ICONS NOVELS, MARVEL'S BLACK WIDOW NOVELS, ROYCE ROLLS & CATS VS ROBOTS THIS IS WAR (forthcoming!) She writes the MIGHTY CAPTAIN MARVEL comic for Marvel Comics (ongoing) and has contributed to countless videogames; currently, she is a Narrative Director at Bungie.
From the author:
Goodreads Peeps! Please note I no longer review the books on my shelf, "stars"-wise. I do list books I read, and they're all automatically marked as 5 stars. That's because a) I don't list books that I didn't like enough to finish and b) I didn't want to delete the ratings I had already given. If I particularly love a book and feel inclined to comment, you'll still see the comments here. Sadly, I have to ask: please don't reproduce these comments on book jackets, websites, or in any other medium for the marketing of books. They're only meant for fellow goodreaders. Thanks so much!
ABOUT ME:
Writing has gotten me in and out of trouble since I was 15 (back then, mostly just in trouble.) For 10 years, I designed &/or wrote for lots of video games, one of which was nominated for “Most Innovative Game Design,” but I lost to a rapping onion. If you know games you get why my two bad beagles are named Zelda and Kirby.
From the author:
Goodreads Peeps! Please note I no longer review the books on my shelf, "stars"-wise. I do list books I read, and they're all automatically marked as 5 stars. That's because a) I don't list books that I didn't like enough to finish and b) I didn't want to delete the ratings I had already given. If I particularly love a book and feel inclined to comment, you'll still see the comments here. Sadly, I have to ask: please don't reproduce these comments on book jackets, websites, or in any other medium for the marketing of books. They're only meant for fellow goodreaders. Thanks so much!
ABOUT ME:
Writing has gotten me in and out of trouble since I was 15 (back then, mostly just in trouble.) For 10 years, I designed &/or wrote for lots of video games, one of which was nominated for “Most Innovative Game Design,” but I lost to a rapping onion. If you know games you get why my two bad beagles are named Zelda and Kirby.
School: I spent more years in it than a person ever should, because let’s face it, reading books is so much better than having a job. I fell in love with American literature at Amherst and Yale, earned an MA in English from Stanford, and studied creative writing under the late great poet George MacBeth at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. I taught Intro to Film as a TA at Yale and Romantic Poetry as a TA at Stanford. Don’t tell the people at Yale but sometimes I taught the section before I’d seen the movie it was about...
I live in Santa Monica, CA, with my family, most of whom were enslaved into working with me in one form or another on my first YA book for Little, Brown. I’m not kidding; when my daughters wanted to go to school I said “Why are you so selfish? Get back in there and edit,” and by said I mean yelled and maybe threw things, it’s all a haze. Now the Beautiful series has wrapped, but you can see the movie on February 13, 2013 or read my new book ICONS on May 7th. Nothing gold can stay, Ponyboy.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 28, 2021
Silly and amusing, a wonderfully performed audiobook with cats, robots and the threat of an intergalactic war.
January 21, 2020
At the end of Cats vs Robots, the beloved neighbor cat, Obi, was given the Singularity Chip that would give him eternal life. Now, with his memories downloaded onto the chip and inserted into the robot body, Obi is being held captive by the Binars, the robots who want to Singularity Chip in order to obtain ultimate charge levels for their entire planet of robots. However, the cats from the planet Felinus, want the Singularity Chip to provide infinites lives for their planet. Max and Min must work with their parents and Cousin Javi to create Infinity Chips to both planets to keep the galaxy at peace, and to keep the chip away from the evil GloboTech CEO, Giff M.E. Huggs.
Honestly, this book was hard to get through. Along with the overwhelming amount of poorly constructed onomatopoeia and obsessive use of puns that are bound to go over a child’s head (i.e. Mork and Mindy, Sir Beeps-a-Lot), the story itself is poorly thought out and just plain bad. In order to fill the book with the maximum number of puns, the author opted to include an extreme amount of characters that were difficult to keep track of. It was also oddly political in a way that didn’t necessarily fit in with the story. At one point they end up at the Teacher’s March, and the author tried to tie it in, but it was executed poorly. One positive that I do think needs to be mentioned is the fact that Cousin Javi is non-binary. It was introduced in a very educational, but elementary way, which I think is important. The descriptions of the cats’ mannerisms was also well done, but I’m not sure that it wouldn’t go over a child’s head. In my opinion, this is a sequel that didn’t need to happen. The first book could have ended with Obi being granted eternal life and this monstrosity could have been avoided.
Honestly, this book was hard to get through. Along with the overwhelming amount of poorly constructed onomatopoeia and obsessive use of puns that are bound to go over a child’s head (i.e. Mork and Mindy, Sir Beeps-a-Lot), the story itself is poorly thought out and just plain bad. In order to fill the book with the maximum number of puns, the author opted to include an extreme amount of characters that were difficult to keep track of. It was also oddly political in a way that didn’t necessarily fit in with the story. At one point they end up at the Teacher’s March, and the author tried to tie it in, but it was executed poorly. One positive that I do think needs to be mentioned is the fact that Cousin Javi is non-binary. It was introduced in a very educational, but elementary way, which I think is important. The descriptions of the cats’ mannerisms was also well done, but I’m not sure that it wouldn’t go over a child’s head. In my opinion, this is a sequel that didn’t need to happen. The first book could have ended with Obi being granted eternal life and this monstrosity could have been avoided.
July 5, 2021
I loved the first book, Cats vs. Robots: This is War! It had many LOL moments.
In this second book, Now With Fleas!, the stakes are upped as the Feline Empire and Robot Federation hurl to Earth, each keen to get their paws / claws on the Wengrod family's latest, coolest, newest, limitless power source invention: the Infinity Engine.
The Wengrods are prepared to happily hand it over, one to each side, if only to keep the Robots from dismantling Obi. Remember him, the now-robotic cat, from the first book? He used the Singularity Drive, and it turned him into a robot-form cat on his 10th life.
Well, the House AI is not quite out of the picture, not yet. It's still sneaking around the house, this time using sophisticated listening and recording bugs to send all it finds out to its parent company, GloboTech. Soon GloboTech finds out about the Engine and its CEO, Giff M.E. Huggs (ha! wink!), wants it.
To rule the world, of course.
Giff maneuvers the President, Empire and Federation into fighting for it.
Can Max, Min, their parents and Cousin Javi save the Earth? And Obi? What about poor Obi? Or will it end in planet-wide disaster?
A great, fun sequel!
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
In this second book, Now With Fleas!, the stakes are upped as the Feline Empire and Robot Federation hurl to Earth, each keen to get their paws / claws on the Wengrod family's latest, coolest, newest, limitless power source invention: the Infinity Engine.
The Wengrods are prepared to happily hand it over, one to each side, if only to keep the Robots from dismantling Obi. Remember him, the now-robotic cat, from the first book? He used the Singularity Drive, and it turned him into a robot-form cat on his 10th life.
Well, the House AI is not quite out of the picture, not yet. It's still sneaking around the house, this time using sophisticated listening and recording bugs to send all it finds out to its parent company, GloboTech. Soon GloboTech finds out about the Engine and its CEO, Giff M.E. Huggs (ha! wink!), wants it.
To rule the world, of course.
Giff maneuvers the President, Empire and Federation into fighting for it.
Can Max, Min, their parents and Cousin Javi save the Earth? And Obi? What about poor Obi? Or will it end in planet-wide disaster?
A great, fun sequel!
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
February 5, 2020
I liked the way that cooperation not conflict was the answer.
Lots of positive liberal talking points — made in a non-didactic way.
Lots of positive liberal talking points — made in a non-didactic way.
November 20, 2020
Even better than the first one!
February 1, 2023
Book 3 please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 2, 2022
Even better than the first one. I love middle grade humor books that deftly combine kid humor (P.P. Pants) with grownup humor (a distressed robot singing "Daisy").
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews