In its quest for world domination, the household toaster tutors the reader in how to make a few different levels of robots out of common household items (or cheap maker items) to help it get out of the house.

This gets more and more technical as you progress through the book. About halfway through you get into some pretty complex builds. For kids and teens who really want to try to build their own robot, the projects in here won’t cost them much and will really let them test their maker skills. This is definitely aimed at those who want to build stuff, not those just looking for something to read. It is entertainingly presented, but the step by step instructions are not riveting reading-wise unless you are actively trying to follow them. I loved the ending of this. If you have read anything about the limits of average robots today, it plays on one of the most classic issues they have in common functions.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received an electronic ARC from First Second Books through NetGalley.
If you're not familiar with this series, it is a great way to introduce elementary level readers to a wide variety of topics. This book focuses on building robots. Venable offers directions to construct six different types of robots moving from the simplest to a more complex model at the end. She finishes the book with information on how to form a robotics club.
Readers meet the toaster who is actually a robot and follow their instructions to build each robot. Venable slips in enough humor to entertain readers while they learn. The brightly colored artwork both shows the intricate details of constructing the robots and creates the settings within their home. The supplies lists offer further needed information for each robot type.
A terrific read together book for younger readers and a great first step for those who want to explore this area.

As an adult, I found this to be a fascinating book. I thought the step by step how to robots were cute and I liked how intent the family toaster was on escaping the house to fulfill his dream of world domination. Two of my children, who were part of a robotics club a few years ago, (were forced to) listen(ed) to me read. The older one is in eighth grade and thought it was pretty cool and recognized most of the parts that were used. My sixth grader wanted to go to sleep after the first two robot projects. I think trying to explain a breadboard in a graphic novel is pretty difficult if you’ve never used one before. I did think that they explained the arduino board and open source material pretty well. Unfortunately, where you could make the first couple robots with things most likely lying around your house, unless you were already into making robots, you had to order most of the parts for the later ones. There were also quite a few typos, but I was reading an arc (advanced reader copy) that I received through Net Galley. All in all, a good book for the older elementary school student, or one who has experience with robotics, but probably not for the super novice. Our library will be purchasing this title.