Granny Grabber's Whizz Bang World by Charlotte Haptie

Granny Grabber's Whizz Bang World by Charlotte Haptie
Buy Granny Grabber's Whizz Bang World by Charlotte Haptie at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: Linda Lawlor
Summary: Delilah's parents do not want her to use her imagination, or have fun. They want her to make them look good by winning Worldwide Junior Extreme General Knowledge Competition. But the robot they buy to look after her has other ideas.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 272	Date: July 2012
Publisher: Hodder Children's
ISBN: 9781444904086
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It takes a very good writer to make a robot seem endearing, and an even better one to make it nicer and kinder than most humans. But that's what Charlotte Haptie manages in this wonderfully daft tale of a child care robot called Granny Grabber that has more common sense than several parents, a firm called The Happy Home Robotics and a King.

Delilah is an ordinary girl — or at least, that's what she'd like to be. But her parents are those pushy types who forbid toys unless they're educational, and won't allow her to have friends because she needs to spend all her time studying. They even make her eat horrible Brain Food Biscuits which taste of cardboard. Unfortunately (or not: wait till you know them better and you'll see what we mean) they don't seem able to find the time to bring up poor Delilah themselves, so they buy a robot to do the job. After all, a robot can be programmed to do exactly what you want it to, and it never has Ideas or Feelings or Imagination. As the instructions in the box say, any robot that shows signs of thinking for itself should be sent straight back to the factory.

And if Mr and Mrs Smart were any good at noticing things, they'd realise immediately that the new child care robot is definitely defective, especially once Delilah has shoved a whole load of extra wires and circuits inside its head in an attempt to make it talk. But they have no time to look: there's work, and skiing, and swimming, and getting a nice tan, and their own private gym. Who could possibly find time to look after a little girl with all that to do?

The result of Delilah's efforts is one of the most gloriously funny creations you'll read about this year. Granny learns to speak by parroting phrases from the radio, and even though she doesn't get them exactly right she always gets her message across eventually. She 'borrows' Mrs Smart's credit cards to buy all manner of interesting things like Christmas decorations and a gerbil, and develops a liking for outlandish and colourful hats. Disaster strikes, however, and a new, sinister robot arrives which spouts all the latest child care theories and jargon and spends its time attempting to catch and pulverise the unfortunate Granny. But in order to find out exactly how this problem is solved, you'll have to read the book!

Special mention must be made of the delightful illustrations by Pete Williamson. His quirky designs serve to make Granny even more 'human', and the grabbers which give Granny her name are spread liberally through the pages.

This is a light-hearted, happy book which will have young readers laughing out loud, and the good news is, Granny is due further adventures.

For more giggles and joyously silly fun, try The Space Crime Conspiracy by Gareth P Jones. And if you haven't yet discovered Ms Haptie's enchanting Ice Angel, then you've got another treat in store.

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