★★★★★
“Maybe she’s shy,” Mom said.
“Or maybe she didn’t hear you,” Dad said.
“Or maybe she doesn’t want to be my friend,” Penny Rose said…
Penny Rose has just moved to a new house, in a new town with a new school.
That’s a lot of new for one little girl.
Luckily, she has a hobby…though her parents are starting to worry about that…
They gave her the Concerned Stare when she worked in her shed for long hours or when she talked about how the robots were her friends.
Penny Rose builds robots – she has made a few so far out of an old cell phone, a pair of dentures, a pencil sharpener and so much more.
Fraction was, in Penny Rose’s opinion, an extremely friendly robot, what with her heart sticker.
But what she really wants is a friend to share this with…which she soon finds in her neighbor, Lark.
Lark is a “professional” birdhouse builder and immediately falls in absolute love with Penny’s robots and joins her to build roboTown.
At first, everything works perfectly…but soon things take a strange turn.
One morning iPam’s arms were raised. Another time the tin-can elevator in roboTown was up instead of down.
and it only gets stranger …
As she was turning to leave, she heard a strange whirring behind her. She spun around, but all she could see were the robots lined up on the table.
Meanwhile, Penny Rose is having a lot of trouble making friends at her new school (besides Lark) but soon an opportunity stumbles upon her.
We are the Secret Science Society. We think you might be a good member, but first you need to pass some tests.
Should Penny Rose take a chance on these new friends? Or is one true friend enough?
One thing is for certain, her life will never be the same!
“But how is this happening?” Penny Rose asked. “I’ve gone over it a thousand times, but I still don’t understand it.”
“It’s magic.”
Ahhh! I absolutely adored this story.
The plot was extremely well-done – plenty of dramatic twists and turns. I never knew where the story was going but I absolutely loved being taken on this adventure.
Penny Rose was such a hilariously quirky girl – everything she said was absolute gold.
Her cheeks burned hotter than a Bunsen burner.
I loved how she bounded from extreme shyness to excitement whenever her little robots came onto the scene.
And the robots! Ah. They have stolen my heart.
The illustrations scattered throughout the book really tied things together and made it come alive.
All in all – this book was really well done and an absolute delight from cover to cover. Highly recommended!
With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review
Miranda Reads 