My Robot Buddy

Robot Buddy #1

by Alfred Slote; Illustrator Joel Schick

Book by Slote, Alfred

Genres: Childrens, Science Fiction, Robots, Young Adult, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated technology, hokey story, but fun enough that I'm glad I spent a whole, erm, 1/2 hour reading it.

[Berna · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 stars rounded up to 4.
The technology of sci fi is a bit outdated but I like the message it gave. We should not focus on differences but what we share in friendships and all relationships.

[Kathy Falconer · Rating 5 out of 5]

My group of fourth grade boys loved this book.

[Douglas Summers-Stay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the first chapter books I read, perhaps the first science fiction book I read myself: before Maria Looney or Danny Dunn or Tom Swift, and a couple of years before A Wrinkle in Time and other actual novels. It made a big impression. I remember noticing that my friend Danny had freckles and red hair just like the robot friend when I reread the book a few years later. I think the first science fiction story I published was partly based on this. Danny is an android, which means he looks very close to human, and is designed to be a companion. This kind of robot shows up here and there-- Klara and the Sun, Spielberg's A.I., The Electric Grandmother. The stories only work if you are able to suspend disbelief and see the companion as a kind of person with their own needs, and there's often this frisson between the robot as a person and the robot as a manufactured product that makes the stories moving when people start or stop treating the robot as a person.
I am not saying this would be a book of any interest to adults. It was important to me at age 6, is all. The technology they extrapolate (the book was written in the 70s) is odd and not really well thought out-- his father can't afford a cell phone, for example, but Danny has one built in, so he helps the dad out. That the robots walk with stiff knees is an important plot point. It turns out there is a whole series, but I've never read any of the sequels.

[Greg Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tracked this down after much searching and a helping hand from some stellar book buffs. i first read it at the age of 10 or so, and was thrilled to revisit it at 40.

this was a quick read, as it is intended for kids. but i enjoyed it all the same.

i highly recommend this book for anyone interested in sci-fi, or for children of sci-fi nerds.

[Peyton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book when it first came out in the 70s and it stuck with me enough that I still remember loving it in my 50s.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably would have been more entertained had I read this when I was seven and one of its sequels was my favorite book. But it's still nice that I finally got the backstory, fifteen years later.

[John Loyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Robot Buddy (1975) 70 pages by Alfred Slote.

Al is my favorite author. Not that I like his stories the best, it's that I enjoy talking with him, and he is one of the most pleasant people that I've ever met.

Robot Buddy is novella or maybe just novelette length. So I don't know if I can count it as a full book in my reading stats! Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you -- I keep stats for everything. That's a hyperbole, but hopefully you get the point.

Jack lives in the country with no children his own age around and keeps pestering his parents to get him a robot to play with. He knows that robots are expensive and his dad really needs that mobile phone for his business. His parents discuss the idea and they decide to get Jack the robot. For Jack's tenth birthday they take a tour of the Atkin's robot factory, and at the end Jack is presented with his new robot friend.

Slote touches a little upon whether the robot has real emotions versus being a tool, but the action part of the plot has to do with robotnappers. Since it says that on back cover I can feel safe that I'm not giving away too much, and for the intended 7 to 10 age group, a robotnapper is much more tangible than some sort of economic discussion of robots taking the jobs of people, or the real being vs. tool idea. I noticed a couple of times that a character would introduce a word and then give the definition to Jack. Very clever.

It wasn't Asimov's I, Robot, but it was very evenly paced, quick reading, and had the ideas of sharing and weighing choices, without being preachy.

[Nick Bruzzano · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish the book was longer than it was but, It was a really simple and quick book that wasn't to complex. Though the subject was basic it was a nice story about how a lonely kid gets a robot from his dad for his birthday even though his dad really needed the money for his work phone. I really enjoyed the book.

[Justin Hyman]

Don't go around walking like a robot or you will surely be stolen by nefarious thieves is the central theme in Alfred Slote's My Robot Buddy. At least I think so...it's been over 20 years since I have read it.
This was the first book I read and reread. The idea of having a Robot BFF was practically all I thought about for several months.
I would go back and pick it up again to recapture that feeling but I learned the hard way with The Dollhouse Murders that these books don't necessarily stand the test of time. Especially because, besides the actual robot and maybe a flying car, today's technology is more advanced than most of the things portrayed in this novel children's novel.

[Ms. Vicki Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute short novel about a futuristic earth family with one young boy that's an only child, Jack. Jack is lonely and wants his parents to buy him a robot so he will have a friend to play with. On Jack's birthday his parents take him to tour a robot factory and he suspects he may get his own robot before he leaves that day. Good story for kids ages 8 - 12.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book in grade school. Check the cover.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

High literature.

[Marissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who dislikes this is incorrect.

[Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book may be old but is a lot of fun to read.

[Mas5thgrade2011 · Rating 5 out of 5]

FUNNY!!!!!!!!