A Robot World by Clive Gifford (Franklin Watts)

For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by robots and I'm glad to say that a bit of that fascination has definitely rubbed off on Charlotte...
As children are positively encouraged to engage in more STEM-related subjects and interests, books like "A Robot World" by Clive Gifford give a really great entry point for younger children who want to start finding out a bit more about the amazing world of robotics and machines.

Though this book takes a fairly lightweight approach, adopting the same sort of layouts we're increasingly seeing in a lot of children's non-fiction titles, it's exactly the sort of book to draw in reluctant readers who perhaps want a minimal word count but still want to come away with tons of amazing facts to use as a starting point to spur on their interest.

Clive's excellent use of photos and illustrations really brings the subject to life...

R2-D2, Arguably one of the most famous movie robots ever created.

Kids will love finding movie and fictional robots in this book, but these 'bots have gone on to inspire real-life cyberneticists and robotics engineers to create their own real-world robots, utilising some of the ideas seen in science fiction. How cool is that? VERY cool!

Asimo. Honda's amazing human-like robot can run, walk up stairs and even shake your hand.

Starting way back in history as the very first mechanical automatons were developed (often by watch or clockmakers), then bringing things bang up to date with the fabulous robots that we use in everyday industrialisation and even space exploration, there's tons to read about in this book.

Canadarm 2 - A vital component of the International Space Station

Hopefully kids will be inspired enough to dig further into the subject. Working in an institution where the robotics department is one of the most fascinating places to visit, I can definitely vouch for Clive's book covering this in a really engaging way.

Charlotte's best bit: Learning all about the very first automatons.

Daddy's favourite bit: Gotta love all those movie robots!

"A Robot World" by Clive Gifford is out now, published by Franklin Watts (kindly supplied for review).