ROBOT dreams

ROBOT dreams

Illustrated by: Sara Varon

ROBOT dreams by Sare Varon is a picture chapter book; which means it is "a unique combination of text and art" (Literature and the child pg 12). The only text that is in this book is the months of the year. The first chapter of the book starts off in August and goes all the way to back to August. For viewer to understand what is going on in the book they will have to have a good imagination for the book to come to life. This book is a chapter book that is filled with tons of pictures. This book would also fall under the fantasy genre because this could not happen in real life (Literature and the child pg 16) This is a appropriate book for children at any age. Also, fantasy "ranges from picturebooks containing talking animal stories for very young children to complex novels for older readers that explore universal truths" (Literature and the child pg 16) What that quote means is that young children will take this picturebook and think that this could happen and older readers will think about how this book can't be true.

At the beginning of this picture/chapter book, the dog recieves a box in the mail. In this box was the robot that he will assemble and put together. This new robot will become his best friend. They will do everything and anything together. The picture above is on page 7 in ROBOT dreams, and what this picture is showing the viewer is the package that the dog is fixing to recieve from the mail man. 

The picture above is where it all begins. (ROBOT dreams pg 9) This was the first adventure that the robot and the dog took together, it was the first of many. In the month of August, is when the robot and the dog decided to take on another adventure. Starting with page 15, the robot and the dog decide to go to the beach. Well, that turned into a bad idea because throughout the rest of the book, the dog and some of his friends (rabbits) try to get the robot off the beach, because once the sun hit the robot he couldn't move. The dog would come back each day and to see if anything had changed, but the robot was still in the same place. One day it finally clicked for the dog, he went and got motor oil and it worked but something else happened, the leg of the robot came off from the paddle of the boat. But the dog finally gave up because he didn't know what to do anymore. The robot ended up in a junk yard, where somebody else came and found him and put him back together. The dog ended up with a brand new robot at the end of the story. I would use this in my classroom for upper grades because I can have them go through the book and have them write out his or her own solution on figuring out how to get the robot fixed. Reader Response Questions:

1) Why do you like this book?

2) If you can have a robot for a day, what kind of activities would you do together?

References:

Google Images

Varon, S. (2007). Robot dreams. New York: First Second. pg 7, 9, 15-205. Print.

 

Galda, L., Cullinan, B. E., & Sipe, L. R. (2009). Literature and the child. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning pg 12, 16 Print.