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Day I Started a Mega-Robot Invasion

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Molly should be doing her homework but, instead, SHE BUILDS A ROBOT to do it for her. The robot, Bob 1, is pretty clever…so clever that he decides to make Bob 2 and, before you can say binary, there’s AN ARMY OF BOBS.

Now Molly must race against time to stop a MEGA BOB INVATION…and hand in her homework!

176 pages, Paperback

Published January 2, 2020

1 person is currently reading
5 people want to read

About the author

Tom McLaughlin

105 books26 followers
I write pictures and doodle words for Bloomsbury, Puffin, Oxford University Press, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, The Guardian, Disney, Nickelodeon. After leaving art college in ’97, I spent nearly 10 years as a political cartoonist for The Western Morning News before going freelance.

I’ve been published both as a writer and an illustrator for a number of publishers, had my books translated across Europe and South America. Apart from publishing, I’ve also spent time script writer and a character designer for several animation channels.

I live in Devon, spend most of my days drinking tea and dreaming up new stories.

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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
3,117 reviews4 followers
February 4, 2020
Book Reviewed on www.whisperingstories.com

Nine-year-old Molly thinks that she is too clever for boring homework such as a geography essay on Oxbow lake. She believes that she is going to be the next big inventor, although most of her inventions up to now have gone wrong.

One afternoon, when her parents go out, Molly is told to do finish her homework before she does anything else. She comes up with a better plan though, she can build herself a robot who can do the homework for her.

Eventually, she creates Bob, but she gave Bob the power to think for himself and has connected him to the internet. Bob doesn’t want to do Molly’s homework so he has an idea. To build a robot to do it for him. The cycle keeps on going until Molly ends up with an army of robots. Whatever is she to do and will she ever complete her homework?

The Day I Started a Mega Robot Invasion is the fourth book in ‘The Day I’ series of books by author Tom McLaughlin and the fourth that I have read too. The books are all stupidly funny. Have great plots which are very imaginative and that kids will love and come with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments.

I think a lot of children will be able to understand why Molly created Bob the Robot, as I am sure lots of them find homework boring or tedious and hate doing it, I know I certainly did (Yes, I can remember that far back!!).

As with the other books in the series, the chapters are told in timestamps throughout the day, beginning at 1 pm and moving an hour forward each time. There is also amazing artwork throughout by the author which helps to keep those giggling moments coming.

The Day I Started a Mega Robot Invasion is such a fun book and adds to the already amusing collection of books. These books would be perfect for children who love a book that is filled with amusing and weird moments, or even for a reluctant reader as they do give you a laugh, have short chapters and the artwork is pretty awesome. As well as having activities to keep them occupied at the back of the book too.
Profile Image for Cat Strawberry.
838 reviews22 followers
May 19, 2020
This is a very funny and silly story which children and I’m sure many teens and adults will enjoy. Molly is a clever girl and loves to invent things. One day while her parents go out, she’s left alone to do her homework. But Molly doesn’t want to do her boring homework, so she creates a robot to do it for her instead. Problem solved! Except that the robot doesn’t want to do the homework either, so decides to create a robot to do it for him. But what will happen when the second robot feels like the first robot and doesn’t want to do the homework as well?

This story is such a silly one but brilliant at the same time. I’ve enjoy all of Tom McLaughlin’s ‘The Day…’ books and this one is another great one to join the collection. As with all books in the series, each chapter is another hour in the day, chapter one being 1pm, chapter two 2pm, etc. And each chapter is filled with easy to read text and lots of funny illustrations throughout.

I really like this story as it’s based around a situation that so many kids wish for, a robot that could do their homework for them (it’s definitely something I wished I could have had when I was young). The robots, and in particular the first robot which Molly calls Bob is especially funny as he’s given a personality that makes the whole story all the more silly. The more robots that appear, created one after the other, the more and more silly the story gets. It’s a good story though and one with so many great moments of humour thrown in. I laughed aloud so many times while reading this (especially with that star wars reference) and the whole story just has a great ending to it with a bit of a twist that had me laughing for a long time.

The illustrations, in black and white, are great and do make the already funny story even better. In fact many times it was the illustrations that really made me laugh aloud, especially the disco outfit! I like the simple and fun style of the pictures and they appear on almost every double page of the book. Like with all of the books in this series, there are fun activities to do at the end, such as how to draw your own robot, or a maze to complete, among others. I always enjoy these added extras as you get to stay with the story you just read longer, and I’m sure many kids would love to draw their own Bob!

This is a brilliant book and I’d recommend it, as well as the whole series of ‘The Day…’ books. Each one of these books has made me laugh and smile, and this book put me in a really great mood after I was feeling a little down before reading it. I’m sure plenty of children will really enjoy the humour and story, and I’d say that plenty of teens and adults might enjoy a quick read of this too!
-Thanks to Walker Books for a free copy for review.
485 reviews5 followers
September 23, 2024
The Day I Started a Mega Robot Invasion is a chapter book for kids, written and illustrated by Tom McLaughlin. The book introduces us to Molly, who doesn’t want to do her homework. As an inventor, she decides to create a robot, in the hopes that it will do her homework for her. But then the robot doesn’t want to do her homework either, so it builds a robot to do it. As more and more robots get made, Molly realises that there’s a problem, and needs to save the day.

My first thought about it is that I think it was a mediocre book. The main reason I wanted to give it a read was because it sounded like a fun read. In actuality, I think the main reason I didn’t find it fun is because I’m not the intended audience for it. I knew, before reading it, that the whole “person builds robot which builds another” is a fairly common trope throughout media (though sometimes it works with clones, too). And it’s fine for people to use tropes. But I think the book didn’t stray much from the general trope. There wasn’t much originality to this version. So, I didn’t feel like there was much creativity to the story and general plot line. Molly herself is a fairly ordinary character, and I can appreciate that she didn’t want to do her homework. But she was a very stereotypical kid, and I would have liked more creativity put towards her character, too. Though I do like how ambitious she is about making the robot, and that she has a lot of pride for her talent of invention. I appreciate that the author gave writing the book a good try. But, having said that, I felt like the writing needed a bit more work. Rather than there being descriptions of what’s happening, there is a lot of dialogue, where I need to assume what’s happening, rather than it being told to me. The author didn’t put much time into building the scenes, or telling us what each character is doing, how those actions affect the scene, etc. The book is full of dialogue, but not much other than that.

The illustration work is a bit of fun, and I think the artist (who is also the author) put a lot of good work into giving us some amusing images. Molly and her little adventure is interesting to see, and I’m sure a lot of readers will enjoy seeing what’s going on.

Overall, I think it’s a bland book. My main issue with it is that it’s not very original. But I think a lot of kids would probably enjoy it, and it might even inspire them to learn more about robots and how to make them.
Profile Image for Lauren.
764 reviews2 followers
July 22, 2020
I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews

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