Ultrabot's First Playdate

Very clever use of varying viewpoints intensifies their dramatic differences while marvelous visual details reinforce their similarities as they play together like any kids. A delightful, picture-perfect playdate. 

Ultrabot, a gigantic, rust-colored robot with a barrel-shaped torso and a spindly antenna, lives with its human professor in a "top-secret laboratory on Primrose Lane." When the professor arranges a playdate for Ultrabot with someone called Becky, it panics: "What if Becky was mean?" Ultrabot envisions Becky as a giant, hairy monster with sharp claws and beady eyes, but Becky turns out to be a gentle human girl who wears lots of barrettes in her hair and is unfazed by her unusual playmate. Illustrations show a playful contrast between the laboratory's sterile environment, filled with tanks and gadgets, and the homier accoutrements of Ultrabot's bedroom (it lies worriedly tucked under a patchwork quilt). And Schneider inserts subtle visual humor into every scene of this winning friendship story—both Ultrabot and Becky prefer their sandwiches just so (bread crusts removed for one, enormous metal beams welded off for the other)—as human and robot find out just how much they have in common.

Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

"[T]he tongue-in-cheek text is counterpoint to hilarious digitally enhanced line and watercolor illustrations.... It may take several readings to glean all of Schneider's visual gags." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"[A] delightful tale about the anxiety of making new friends"—Chicago Tribune