Robot Rampage: a Buzz Beaker Brainstorm (Graphic Sparks)

Description

A robot built for the school science fair goes haywire, and Jimmy comes up with a plan to stop it. Written in graphic-novel format.

Born in 1962 in Denver, Colorado, Scott Nickel works by day at Paws, inc., Jim Davis's famous Garfield studio, and he freelances by night. Burning the midnight oil, Scott has created hundreds of humorous greeting cards and written several children's books, short fiction for Boys' Life magazine, comic strips, and lots of really funny knock-knock jokes. He was raised in southern California, but in 1995 Scott moved to Indiana, where he currently lives with his wife, two sons, six cats, and several sea monkeys.

If you know any young, budding scientists, this story will be perfect for them. The setting is in an elementary school gymnasium during a science fair. Two friends enter the contest and just when Buzz thinks he has it won, Elroy displays his robot and wins first place. Unfortunately, the robot begins to grow and crashes through the school roof. The robot has Buzz and Elroy in each of his hands and begins to walk through the town. Realizing that someone may actually get hurt, the boys try to think of a way to stop him. Believe it or not, bubble gum is used to save the day, but I will not tell you how as it would ruin the story. If there was ever a book written for a young boy, this is it. Of course being written in graphic form only adds to the enjoyment of the story. Also helpful is the introduction of characters by name and picture on the first two pages. This is definitely an outstanding tool for helping the reader to follow the story. Included at the end of the book is further information about what it is like to be an actual clown, information about the author and illustrator, "Discussion Questions and Writing Prompts," and step-by-step directions about how to use the Fact Hound web site. This web site is particularly beneficial because it is set up to allow the user to select the grade level of information they want. This is a great book to hook a reluctant reader into reading! I highly recommend this book.-- "Children's Literature"