If you could build a robot BFF, what would it do? Would it help you play tricks and pull pranks? With Make a Robot BFF Your Way! young makers will use the makerspace tools to learn how to get inspired, problem-solve, and collaborate with others as they create their robot. Colorful images and engaging sidebars, along with guiding prompts and advice, will help. Super Sandcastle is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
If you could craft a creepy costume, what would it look like? Would you use it to trick, spook, or surprise others? With Make a Creepy Costume Your Way! young makers will use the makerspace tools to learn how to get inspired, problem-solve, and collaborate with others as they create their creepy costume. Colorful images and engaging sidebars, along with guiding prompts and advice, will help. Super Sandcastle is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
Sometimes reading a book about a challenging topic is easier than finding the 'right words to say.' "Is my Best Friend a Robot?" is a story about asking questions and accepting differences. Albert is a shy and silly boy. Myra is a charismatic and creative girl. Albert and Myra do everything together. They battle robots, invent new desserts, and explore far-off planets all from the comfort of Albert's living room. But when Myra hears a strange BEEP from Albert's tummy one day, she thinks she's discovered Albert's biggest secret - her best friend is a robot! ...or is he? The reader is invited to see the world through Albert and Myra's imaginations as they learn about curiosity, type 1 diabetes, and what it means to be a true friend.
If you could construct a pet monster, what would it be? A dog with two heads? A rabbit with spider legs? With Make a Pet Monster Your Way! young makers will use the makerspace tools to learn how to get inspired, problem-solve, and collaborate with others as they create their pet monster. Colorful images and engaging sidebars, along with guiding prompts and advice, will help. Super Sandcastle is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
If you could engineer a mini UFO, how would it fly? Would it hover above the ground or whiz by in a flash? With Make a Mini UFO Your Way! young makers will use the makerspace tools to learn how to get inspired, problem-solve, and collaborate with others as they create their mini UFO. Colorful images and engaging sidebars, along with guiding prompts and advice, will help. Super Sandcastle is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
Ben Hatke brings back our intrepid space heroine for another delightful sci-fi/fantasy adventure. Zita is determined to find her way home to earth, following the events of the first book. But things are never simple, and certainly never easy, in space. Zita's exploits from her first adventure have made her an intergalactic megastar! But she's about to find out that fame doesn't come without a price. And who can you trust when your true self is being eclipsed by your public persona, and you've got a robot doppelganger wreaking havoc . . . while wearing your face? Still, if anyone can find their way through this intractible mess of mistaken identity and alien invaders, it's the indomitable Zita, in Legends of Zita the Spacegirl. Legends of Zita the Spacegirl is one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Children's Books of 2012.
Young makers will discover their limitless potential with this Super Simple DIY title. Kids will explore Make a Robo Pet Your Way! to imagine their own robo pet. Maybe it wags its tail or its eyes light up? Then they will use makerspace tools and learn how to get inspired, problem-solve, and collaborate with others as their robo pet comes to life. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Super Sandcastle is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
Seven-year-old Ben loves pretending to be a robot, but his best friend Jessy is tired of being ordered to oil his knee joints and check his batteries. She says the robot game is boring and runs off to play with someone else. So Ben decides to build a real robot instead. He's built all kinds of things before: wind generators, solar-powered marble launchers, pinball machines. But none of his creations have ever really worked. Until now. When his robot begins talking, Ben is thrilled. However, nothing goes quite the way he thinks it will. Ben's robot is rather difficult to get along with. He complains a lot. He's bossy. He never wants to do anything Ben suggests. Having a real robot isn't nearly as much fun as Ben thought it would be. And to make things worse, no one—not even Jessy—will believe him.
A girl's efforts to build a robot friend go comically awry when the robot attempts world domination in this witty metaphor for the ups and downs of friendship. Ever wish friendship came with an instruction manual? A resourceful youngster follows step-by-step directions for constructing a robot to be her friend. The instructions make it sound so simple! But they also caution that sometimes a friendship doesn't turn out as hoped for, as the girl discovers when her new friend unexpectedly unleashes an evil robot army on the city. Now she has to stop the robot and seriously reevaluate their friendship! In the end, the resilient heroine of this comical and clever tale not only saves the city, she finds a real and lasting friend where least expected.
As any reader of Jo Walton's Among Others might guess, Walton is both an inveterate reader of SF and fantasy, and a chronic re-reader of books. In 2008, then-new science-fiction mega-site Tor.com asked Walton to blog regularly about her re-reading—about all kinds of older fantasy and SF, ranging from acknowledged classics, to guilty pleasures, to forgotten oddities and gems. These posts have consistently been among the most popular features of Tor.com. Now this volumes presents a selection of the best of them, ranging from short essays to long reassessments of some of the field's most ambitious series. Among Walton's many subjects here are the Zones of Thought novels of Vernor Vinge; the question of what genre readers mean by "mainstream"; the underappreciated SF adventures of C. J. Cherryh; the field's many approaches to time travel; the masterful science fiction of Samuel R. Delany; Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children; the early Hainish novels of Ursula K. Le Guin; and a Robert A. Heinlein novel you have most certainly never read. Over 130 essays in all, What Makes This Book So Great is an immensely readable, engaging collection of provocative, opinionated thoughts about past and present-day fantasy and science fiction, from one of our best writers. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
