Tracy Subisak

Grace has wanted a dog all her life, and finally finds one her parents can't say no to: a robot dog she builds herself from a kit. She names the dog Kit (aptly) but finds that having a dog that does everything exactly the same every time is kind of boring, so she adds some mischief to the code. But an accident teaches Grace that some commands have to be obeyed for safety's sake, so she repairs and adjusts her code to keep Kit out of danger.

Back matter includes "How to make anything better" show more (testing code in a sandbox), and step-by-step guidance for coding projects. Grace's code is included throughout the story for readers to examine.

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Danny from next door took one look and laughed. "I could build a rocket and fly it to Pluto before you finish putting that together."
"Please do," said Grace.

See also: Rosie Revere, Engineer; The Most Magnificent Thing show less

A cute little story about a girl desperate for a pet trying to assemble her own robot dog takes an interesting turn into hardcore STEM as she learns about unintended consequences, testing, and debugging computer code.

Cute art and a heartfelt through line keep the momentum going even when a few pages are fill with computer language.

When I was a girl I actually rarely liked books about boys but I’m glad I got to choose which books to read. This is a wonderful book about letting children read books that they find appealing. It’s a fun story and some of it is very amusing. I chuckled out loud a couple of times. Sweet and with a good message that isn’t too, too overpowering because of the engaging way the story is told.

I love the illustrations. They tell the story well and they’re beautiful to view. I enjoy the show more art style and the way color is used. I think the cover illustration is less appealing than any of the pictures in the book. I enjoyed the ones inside more than I thought I would.

I love this book. Gift worthy book and would make a great read aloud for families and classrooms. I would like to see this in every school library.

I would like every children’s librarian and every parent to read it.

ETA: Goodreads still won't let us post links in our comments but I was told they now let us post them in our reviews. I gave up trying a while back but now I'm trying again because this is a good interview that directly relates to this book: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article... show less

Family Picture Book Read-Aloud Afternoon: A Nine-Book Pile!

I was expecting a book about straight-up censorship, but it's a strange fantasy about a sexist old man running a bookmobile who acts as a gatekeeper and tries to steer the children, robots, and animals who come looking for books toward ones he thinks would suit them, i.e., girls should read books with girl protagonists. It was too strange and silly for me, especially when an allosaurus showed up.

Muddled message. Blah execution.