The Phoenix Presents: Mega Robo Bros product reviews

Mr Six and I were really impressed with this book. It has plenty of adventure (if you enjoy Science Fiction - which both of us do!) but it also puts a human angle on the two little robots (written without the "t" in the book title) who are being brought up by their adoptive human parents. Their parents want them to have a normal upbringing so they treat them exactly as they would human children except that they have superpowers and can do things that no human child can do.

They like to eat icecream (especially Freddy) and hang out with their pet droids - including a penguin who constantly makes deep and meaningful statements, and a gorilla who keeps speaking a strange version of French. School is more of a problem; they are often in trouble and, like any kids, they have to learn to deal with bullies.

The book is actually a graphic novel which is divided into chapters. Mr Six commented that it was useful to have a table of contents as you could find out where you got up to. He also liked the double-spread collage of pictures on the contents page which helped him to work out what the book was about. The language used caused lots of amusement: he is old enough to think it is hilarious when a "naughty" word is replaced by a "beeeep". As for the songs about "poopy poopy butt butt", that did not just have Mr Six in hysterics - Miss Four got the giggles as well! And we won't mention the "Look out, Fartface!" comment from Freddy as this is the sort of thing you expect when two small brothers get together ...

It was good to see lots of different ethnicities featuring in the book. In today's world, it is important that society is represented as it really is. In the past too many children's books featured exclusively white children; it is great to see more diversity included. And that is before you count the robots, if you can count them as yet another ethnic group!

I understand that this is the first book in a series so I look forward to seeing the next one. For both me and Mr Six, this was a runaway success. I read the first part of the book to him and then he went off to bed to read the rest of it on his own. He was supposed to be going to sleep so he would be fresh for school next day, but the occasional giggle coming from his room gave him away!