My Robot: A Charming Story for Children (Ages 4-7) About a Very Special Robot

by Eve Bunting, Dagmar Fehlau (Illustrator)

A robot can do a lot of things. But what is the very best thing this robot can do?

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books

24 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2006

About the author

Also known as Evelyn Bolton and A.E. Bunting.

Anne Evelyn Bunting, better known as Eve Bunting, is an author with more than 250 books. Her books are diverse in age groups, from picture books to chapter books, and topic, ranging from Thanksgiving to riots in Los Angeles. Eve Bunting has won several awards for her works.

Bunting went to school in Ireland and grew up with storytelling. In Ireland, “There used to be Shanachies… the shanachie was a storyteller who went from house to house telling his tales of ghosts and fairies, of old Irish heroes and battles still to be won. Maybe I’m a bit of a Shanchie myself, telling stories to anyone who will listen.” This storytelling began as an inspiration for Bunting and continues with her work.

In 1958, Bunting moved to the United States with her husband and three children. A few years later, Bunting enrolled in a community college writing course. She felt the desire to write about her heritage. Bunting has taught writing classes at UCLA. She now lives in Pasadena, California.

Reviews

[Edward Sojuwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kids today are accepting modern technology as never before, and Eve Bunting is there at the cutting edge with a 30 page science fiction gem that has an Indian family and the robot named Cecil who is their best friend. Cecil can clean house, take the kids to school, play tag and make the most killer chocolate cakes. And sad as I am to relay this to hardcore dystopian fans who see nothing but dark futures and AI making humanity expendable...that this book laughs at all of you because one: the take on robotics and how it relates to human families is upbeat and thus more realistic, and two: you guys have been seeing Terminator and Blade Runner movies too much and thus learned the wrong lessons about robots. But then, we've all done that. Eve Bunting has better perspective than doomsayers who still maintain that once AI takes over machines, it's over for mankind. Eve says: rethink your fears and give robots a chance! You'll see.
Three stars
Cecil leaves dystopian fiction in the cyber-dust!

[Karla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could be better

Negative

Robots should be able to do tasks Cecil is not the best at—- he’s not properly programmed then

Friendship... goes too far

I’d hoped for something more realistic
I was let down

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't bad as stories go. It might work well for the story structure that teachers teach using The Important Book, which encourages elaborated descriptions. Essentially, this is one long elaboration about the best thing about the child's robot. It ends with a nice sentiment as well. In all, this book could best be described as educationally usable and fun for a younger audience.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Utterly unimpressive. This book lacks a real rhythm or meaningful plot. It was just dumb.