I'm pleased to usher in the blog tour for Ben Hatke's latest,
Little Robot, today! In addition to my usual gushing when it comes to Ben's work, I'm also giving YOU a chance to win a copy -- woot!
Check out my thoughts below, leave
yours in the comments, and then make sure to enter to win!
And don't forget to
check out more of the Little Robot blog tour for more great reviews & chances to win!
It's not news to anyone who's hung around my blog/vlog for any length of time that I love the work of Ben Hatke. (Also not news to anyone who read that intro, so. . .) I've talked about this many, many times, and pushed his books on many, many people, both online and IRL. So of course, I'm always looking forward to whatever's coming up next, confident in the belief that whatever it is is sure to brighten my shelves.
And
Little Robot is no exception to that rule.
Little Robot follows in the tradition of plucky young female protagonists and their oddball companions, set by
Julia's House for Lost Creatures
and the
Zita the Spacegirl
series. Unlike Hatke's previous books,
Little Robot is nearly wordless (and of the words that make it to the page, most of them are in robot, so...), though its no less full of story as a result.
If there's anything Hatke excels at, it's injecting as much personality as possible into every frame, every character, every inanimate object -- and yes, I mean that literally. More than once, this man has made me have feels about rocks,
literal rocks with eyeballs, and monsters, and what may have been a giant coil of hair or wire or something, I don't even know, but it, too.
And yes, robots.
Hatke is an excellent anthropomorphosizererer, skillfully drawing the
reader into caring about even the smallest and most unimposing of
creatures/creations, with an immediacy that is impressive. You can't
help but fall for our little unnamed adventurer and her newfound robot
companion, and once you've decided to care about them, well, you may as
well care about the pile of broken machinery in the junkyard, too,
right? And that perky little fixer robot-bug-thingy, he's quite adorable
now, isn't he? Hatke draws you into their magical little world so
seemlessly that it seems
obvious that you'd love these things.
Of course
you want to join our lonely little adventurer girl, let her lead you on
explorations and discoveries, and bring smiles to each others
faces.
Lest you think Hatke's books are just cute, but inconsequential, they most certainly are not. The robots and their nameless human girl may draw you in with their sweetness, but there's depth there, too. There's a loneliness and sense of longing to the story that grounds it and makes it stick with you. I think at the core of all of Hatke's stories, there's a thread of "finding your people," even if those "people"
aren't people. They're all about finding your place, your companion(s), your way in the world. Hatke's characters stumble upon each other by chance and it's as if a missing piece has been found; they fit together perfectly. It's charming and sweet and funny and real, and I think you can see why I end up singing his praises so often... And this time around, I was getting
double-feels because it reminded me of another nearly-wordless, unlikely robot companion story,
Robot Dreams
, that is just one of the
bestweirdestawesomest things I've ever read. So this is in excellent company.
And of course, of
course, the art is gorgeous. So what's not to like?
****GIVEAWAY****
To celebrate the release of
Little Robot by Ben Hatke, the awesome folks at FirstSecond have offered up one (1) copy of the book to one (1) lucky winner!
Giveaway is US only.
Ends September 18th, 2015 at 11:59pm EST.
Fill out the Rafflecopter to enter.
Good luck!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Little Robot by Ben Hatke
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Graphic Novel, 144 pages
Published September 1st 2015 by First Second
When a little girl finds an adorable robot in the woods, she presses a button and accidentally activates him for the first time. Now, she finally has a friend. But the big, bad robots are coming to collect the little guy for nefarious purposes, and it's all up to a five-year-old armed only with a wrench and a fierce loyalty to her mechanical friend to save the day!
#1 New York Times Bestselling author Ben Hatke brings his signature sweetness to a simple, moving story about friendship and overcoming fears that will appeal to readers of all ages.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ben Hatke is an author and illustrator of graphic novels and picture books. Most notably he is the creator of the Zita the Spacegirl graphic novel series.
He posts art and stories online at:
www.benhatke.com
