Robots by Charles Hope
Wild Dog Books, 2020. ISBN: 9781742034799.
(Age: 6+) Highly recommended. This non fiction book about robots,
subtitled The Future is Now, will rarely be left on the
shelves as it informs, interests, entertains, delights and
encourages readers to think beyond. Divided into fifteen succinct
chapters, with lots of visual material to pore over, each page
contains a brief outline encouraging readers to think about the
terms expressed. The bites of information are put together in a way
that younger readers can absorb, terms are expressed in such a way
that their context tells the reader what they mean and each page
develops a new idea. A definition of a robot is a good place to
start, and from there the author tells us of the earliest robots:
the story of Pygmalion, the golem, Frankenstein's monster and the
more recent forays into the world of science fiction. Most readers
will have heard of R2D2, Wall-E, HAL and K-9, and the book goes on
to look at automatons and then discuss the difference between
robots, cyborgs and androids. With these differences firmly in
place, the book continues to discuss the use made of such robots and
what the future may hold. A page is devoted to AI, and then Nanobots
and Cobots, terms new to me.
Readers will be enthralled at the range of information given with
wonderfully apt illustrations to behold and longer over. A terrific
index is presented at the end for those curious minds to further
explore the book.
This is one of a series of books being published by Wild Dog, the
first two were Artificial Intelligence, and 3D Printing,
while three more are in the pipeline: Chips, Phones
and Virtual Reality.
Themes: STEM, Robots, AI, Science fiction, Future, Science.
Fran Knight