Power Down, Little Robot treads familiar ground. A child doesn’t want to go to sleep and his mother is trying valiantly to get them in bed. Roll your eyes if you want to, but the subtle dialogue by Anna Staniszewski and retro-future illustrations by Tim Zeltner make the book super cute.
The reason I mentioned that some parents may roll their eyes is the storyline isn’t new. Parents have read books with this plot line before, some of them have been worth a second read and some of them haven’t. One of the best books we’ve read in this vein is On My Way to Bed by Sarah Maizes. That book came out in 2013 and we still read it a couple times a week to the boys.
Power Down, Little Robot could’ve easily fallen into the crevice were it not for the sublime touches in the dialogue and the way it’s presented. Mom’s voice is in quotation marks and the robot’s dialogue is not.
“Bedtime, my little robot!” Mom Unit calls. I quickly open my stalling program.
The fact that we see little robot’s Id speak up as to what he’s thinking and will soon be doing make this book more fun. It’s also cute to see him open his ‘stalling program’, ask for another can of oil and worry about his dreams sending him error messages. You don’t need to be a computer programmer to enjoy Power Down, the terminology is basic and easily accessible to anyone that does simple things online.
The other thing that makes the book work are the illustrations. They’re drawn with a backbone of 60’s futurism, blended with some of the modern tech operations that we use today. Charging cords, manufacturers manuals, virtual recordings and more blends in with everyday things that children will easily identify with.
Lastly, this is a good-nite book. It’s short enough to read twice, but has enough detail in the photos to where you can ask questions about them. We’ve had to read this twice to the boys on many nights and were as OK reading it as they were listening to it and looking at the illustrations.
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