School Library Journal Review

Gr 3-6-Interesting although somewhat superficial, these books cover the control and applications of modern and future robots. Brains describes computers, microchips, sensors, and artificial intelligence in the context of robots. Jefferis includes information on robots as toys; safety and performance enhancers in cars; humans' assistants, servants, and competitors, as in the case of chess; and as automated controllers in transportation and service industries. Voyagers discusses their applications in space from Sputnik through deep-space probes, undersea, in the air and other extreme environments, and their ability to guide vehicles in races against other robot-controlled vehicles. Workers focuses on robotics in industry-in automobile manufacturing, agriculture, hazardous work sites, and so on. All three titles include information on how robots work. Texts are brief, with most of the material presented in captions to the outstanding color photos and other illustrations. A factual error crops up in the claim that the Titanic sank in 1919, rather than in 1912, and the statement that "some scientists say [Pluto] should not be called a planet at all" is dated (Voyagers). Attractive, but basic introductions.-Jeffrey A. French, formerly at Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library, Willowick, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.