Today is my stop on the blog tour for ‘Boot: Little Robot Big Adventure,’ the first in a brand new series of highly-illustrated chapter books. I defy you not to fall in love with the rather adorable robot, Boot!

Toy robot, Boot, wakes up in a scrapyard with a crack in his face and no idea how he got there. Unfortunately, he’s woken up in the scrapyard of the vicious Flint who hates robots and take great pleasure in dismantling them. In a world full of robots, some humans are not very happy that they’re taking over human jobs.

Armed with only two and a bit fuzzy, glitchy memories, Boot sets off on a big adventure to find his owner whom he knows is called Beth. However the big city is a dangerous and ever-changing place and Boot has very little to go on.

With the help of a band of plucky robot hideaways and a large dollop of bravery, will Boot be able to piece together the clues and find his way home?

I loved this tale of love and bravery and would thoroughly recommended it for any readers aged 7+. The pages are crammed with Ben Mantle’s warm and friendly illustrations, whilst Boot’s recognisably human traits will make it easy for young readers to connect with him and want him to succeed.

There’s a healthy portion of mortal peril mixed into the story with malfunction, low batteries and cutter robots looming on the horizon.

This story also raises some interesting questions about what makes us human and the roles robots might play in our future. Will people be tolerant and accepting, or will there be people who are mistrusting? Should intelligent robots be treated as equals or just as machines?

A great read and I can’t wait to see what Boot and his pals get up to next.

As part of this tour, I’ve been asked to share a piece of technology from my past which holds special memories for me, so here it is:

I have very fond memories of listening to my ‘Gobbolino The Witch’s Cat’ story cassette on it, then later trying to record songs off the radio and stopping at just the right point to cut off as much of the DJ’s chatter as possible! By the time I traded it in for the luxury of a double tape deck, it was covered in a lovely selection of stickers from Look-In magazine.  I was also a dab hand at re-looping tapes using a pencil. Skills!

Library Girl.

Make sure take take a look at all the other stops on the blog tour too:

*Many thanks to Hodder Children’s Books for sending me this title to review and including me in the blog tour*