Sara Varon

Don't let the childlike drawings or graphic novel format deceive you: Robot Dreams is not for the faint of heart. A wordless novel that uses pictures to tell the story of an unlikely friendship between a robot and a dog, Robot Dreams is a powerful commentary on love and loss. I found myself captivated by the story and read this book in one sitting. Sara Varon proves that stories are more than just words, and that there is no wrong way to tackle difficult topics. A compelling read, this book show more is perfect for a class library and I would readily recommend it to students interested in comic books. Additionally, I can see myself using this as a teaching tool for lessons on visual story-telling. show less

This graphic novel is completely adorable. Cupcake is a baker and he feels a little bit stagnant in the kitchen lately. Like he's making the same food over and over and losing his creativity. So he starts looking for inspiration and believes he will get it by meeting Turkish Delight, the world class baker. However it turns out that maybe he should be thinking closer to home.

I love this book because it works on sooo many levels and the illustration style is just so attractive to me. I also show more thinks it has levels that appeal more to children and other levels that work more for adults, which I think is extremely exciting. Children can definitely learn lessons about working hard, sacrifice and friendships from the book. Whereas I think adults can relate to feeling like you're in a rut and not having anything you do to move past that work for you.

There is some text in this book but it's not an overabundance. I think the author does a great job just letting panels speak for themselves. It's very easy to figure out what's going on and the book really shows how illistrations can just speak for themselves.

I love that there are recipes in the back of the book and I think I might copy them out to try before I return the book to the library. show less

I imagine that this book has different meanings to different readers, maybe even to the same reader depending upon his or her mood at the time of reading it. Without words, it's not always easy to surmise the motivations behind the dog character in the story, or even really the robot character's feelings, and different interpretations could very well change whether it's a tragedy or not.

For me, I felt a terrible sense of sadness as I read, because the separation of the two friends so early show more in the book and their subsequent loneliness, as I saw it, was quite keen.

But the illustrations are fantastic, with a good style to match the story, and the perfect coloring choices. It's a fairly contemporary not-quite-pastel color scheme, round shapes with fat lines, which keep a soft feeling - something harsh or ascetic wouldn't allow the "sweet" part of "bittersweet" to come out. show less

This is a graphic novel for kids that will appeal to readers of all ages.

Theodora is an odd duck, somewhat obsessive-compulsive and most comfortable with routine and lack of change.

But then the very eccentric (in a different way) duck Chad moves in next door. Chad is colorful, noisy, wild, and messy, and Theodora can’t wait till he flies south for the winter. But to her dismay, he has a broken wing and doesn’t leave.

One night, while Theodora is outside admiring the stars, Chad sees her show more and invites her over to look at them through his telescope. Before they know it, they are talking about everything, and find out they felt the same way about most things in spite of their differences.

Then one day, walking back together through town, they overhear some ducks making fun of “that odd duck.” Each one tries to console the other, thinking it was the other that was the subject of derision. They get into a huge fight about who is actually the odd duck, and stop speaking.

Upon reflection, Theodora, who misses Chad’s friendship, thinks that maybe she could be a bit odd, and goes over to apologize to Chad. Each vows to be “more normal,” although both insist they like the other just the way they are:

"‘It’s not so bad to be odd,’ Theodora thought… not when you have an odd friend.”

The art by Sara Varon is adorable and adds a great deal to the text. Kids will love looking for all the clever and funny details, like the snow angel in the shape of a duck outside the window in winter.

Evaluation: Castellucci, the author of the Tin Star duology, is unrivaled in her embrace of the potential for friendship and love across the boundary lines imposed by convention, countries, races, or even planets. The message conveyed is excellent. show less