Android in the Attic

Gr 3–5—Clever and ingenious, brother-and-sister tag team Billy and Alfie are sent to live with their reclusive mad-scientist Aunt Edna after suddenly finding themselves orphaned. To watch over her new charges, Aunt Edna invents various contraptions designed to feed, exercise, and supervise the kids, including a humanlike android robot whose features are the exact replica of her own. The fun begins when Billy and Alfie manage to hack the robot and tap into her fun side while also tricking the adults into thinking that the android is the real Aunt Edna. Billy and Alfie conspire with their newly modified robot caretaker (renamed Aunty Anne for Android) and get her to buy forbidden junk food and a remote controlled fart machine. The abundant fart antics that ensue are kept fresh and hilariously realized, with a "kids vs. adults" theme that will be highly appealing to many grade-schooler readers. Allan's cartoon illustrations elevate the fun through laugh-out-loud renderings of the various high jinks. The plot gets complicated when a set of bad guys kidnap the real Aunt Edna in order to steal her secret formula for "turning naughty children into maggots." Billy and Alfie set out to rescue their eccentric relative by devising a plan that involves a little bit of romance and a lot of help from their neighbors and of course their trusty Aunty Anne. The very readable and fast-moving chapters move forward at a delightful pace, keeping readers eager to find out how the story will end.—Lettycia Terrones, California State University, Pollak Library, Fullerton , CA