Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

This entertaining (and timely) volume in the educational graphic-novel series takes a look at the history of robots, guided by a mechanical bird from ancient Italy named Pouli ("the first machine that ever flew through the sky"). The comic-book layout is easy to follow, and the detailed text is matched with art that is bright, expressive, and meticulous. Glos.

Kirkus Reviews

This latest entry in the graphic-nonfiction series Science Comics introduces readers to the history of robotics and explains what is and what is not a robot. The conductor on this entertaining guided tour is a birdlike robot called Pouli, conceived by Greek mathematician Archytas and propelled by steam, the first machine to fly through the sky back in 350 B.C.E. Defining a robot as "a machine that senses something in its environment, makes a choice about what it senses, and performs an action in response," Pouli explains how robots are everywhere, from the ocean floor and the surface of Mars to our kitchens. Robots do everything from make coffee and vacuum floors in our homes to defuse bombs and explore the interiors of volcanoes. Pouli offers a refresher on simple machines like levers and pulleys to demonstrate how those simple concepts became the building blocks for the complex machines we have today. Drones are treated as a subset of robotics rather than a separate technology. The narrative focuses on the positives robots and drones can accomplish and the human component of computer programming. Isaac Asimov, who formulated the Three Laws of Robotics, is also recognized. Chabot's clean, full-color panels shift between illustrated anecdotes and often humorous diagrams to convey the information, and they are populated by racially and culturally diverse figures both historical and fictional. An unfortunate oversight is the lack of suggestions for further reading. A lighthearted, enjoyable introduction to a fascinating subject. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 8-12)

School Library Journal (Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2018)

Gr 4-6 In this entry in the series, a mechanical bird reputed to have been invented in the fourth century BCE squires readers through a history of robotics and looks at the evolving role of robots, drones, and artificial intelligence (AI) in work and daily life. The narrator painstakingly explains that true robots are a specific type of machine designed to perform tasks in response to outside stimuli and traces their development from a hypercute 17th-century Japanese toy called a "karakuri ningyo" to today's smart homes and self-navigating aerial drones. The bird also offers general descriptions of the components in build-it-yourself robot kits, plus assorted references to robots in film and science fiction. Military drones, the purported danger of autonomous AI, and even AI rights receive glancing mentions, but troublesome issues of privacy, data theft, and jobs lost to automation go unexplored. In covering such a large subject, the narrative occasionally reads like a stodgy lecture ("Proto-robots are referenced in the Iliad "), but the sequential artwhich features a diverse cast of young STEM enthusiasts, including one wearing a hijabinfuses the discourse with life. VERDICT Readers in upper elementary grades, especially young makers and those with a particular interest in technology, will be drawn to this title, but it would be wise to have more judicious treatments of the topic on hand to counter its relentlessly optimistic viewpoint. John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York