Robotics: DISCOVER THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE FUTURE with 20 PROJECTS

My firstborn son is your classic engineer dork, and he was born that way. He didn't make much eye contact with people when he was a toddler. He could be counted on to completely fail to notice when anyone except me was trying to get his attention. He never really talked to people or played pretend. As a small child he did not require human interaction. He spent hours alone building things. Sometimes if I was really lucky he pointed out to me interesting gears, and he often slammed books about mechanical things into my knees until I read them for the five hundredth time. Never, ever, ever, did he respond to a friendly "hello", notice when a new person entered a room, or otherwise appear to be a member of society.When he was five, his older cousin got a robot for Christmas and drove it into the living room with a remote control. For the first time ever, my nearly non-verbal son 1) noticed someone new was in the room, 2) made eye contact, 3) approached the person respectfully, not too close or too far. Then he said (still making eye contact!) "Hello, Mister Robot. I'm [Name]. How are you today?" and... you would never believe it if you knew him... waited for the robot to respond! My baby DID know how to make conversation! He WAS capable of interaction! I then burst into tears. And, of course, my son didn't notice my emotions.My heart broke for him even as my boy made his bent so clear to me. I vowed to do everything I could to help my son make for himself that robot companion that was clearly his only hope for ever having a friend. Together he and I would create a world of androids to warm every Aspergian's heart.In the five years after that episode, either my son or I have read every single book on robotics accessible to young people in the U.S. No, I don't think I am actually exaggerating. We are aggressive pursuers of books and fanatic followers of our interests. We have read ALL the robot books. They fall into three main categories: silly stories about robots doing things they can't do; technical manuals that you need to have higher maths or a neurological disorder to follow; dry non-fiction with flashy pictures that do a poor job compensating for a lack of depth in the content. Being unable to shell out the $750 for both a Lego robotics kit AND a Lego robotics class, we had pretty much given up on the idea of doing anything for robotics at home, besides studying electronics and math and programming and construction all separately. Both the boy and I were counting the days till I could dump him on the steps of CUNY's mechatronics lab. (One thousand, eight hundred and thirty five if they'll take him for early admission.)Enter Kathy Ceceri's Robotics. Whoa... I am as blown away as I was that Christmas day my son had his first appropriate conversation with anyone. Somebody finally did it! She wrote a book that starts with very simple, basic ideas, explains them, THEN doesn't stop there but explains the next thing you need to understand, and then even doesn't stop there yet but goes on to make clear, using your slowly developed new knowledge, how the complicated, really serious robotics actually works. In detail.This is the best book on robotics for kids ever. It is also a fabulous example of how to do a book on a very technical subject for children (or non-engineer-ish parents).The projects are all genius! I have super high standards for science projects. I do not want to make a chemical reaction inside paper mache and call it earth science; that's chemistry, not a freakin' volcano. My son too, having already made many a silly pretend robot out of recyclables, no longer has any interest in busywork. He will only do projects that help him think about robotics. This book was full of them. Every last project was instructive or thought-provoking.No where does she skim a fact or concept and cover that up by providing a dinky, funny craft or a big glossy photo. She covers them all in such a slow gradient, on a step-by-step, idea-by-idea basis, that I am unafraid to read this book to my younger, non-Aspergian children. My first grader will not be frustrated. He will get it.Every school and every library should have this book. It's the only good one on the topic. But it's good enough for a shelf of books. Really, really, buy this book. You will use it. Your kid will love it. You will look at it on the shelf and swell with satisfaction from the simple knowledge that SOMEONE knows how to write engineering for kids.

Easy to understand.

Great Robotics book that my son enjoyed. The book has a variety of different robots to build. We only built a few but it was fun. Plus we learned a lot. Good book for younger kids 9and up who love robotic or want to learn more.

My 7-year old is into robotics and this books is PHENOMENAL. It has 20 projects which increase in difficulty. It covers the timeline of robotics and explains everything in language my 7-year can handle. There are time when I intervene, but only for vocabulary, not the concept. The concepts are made plain and clear through simple phrases and great illustrations. I totally recommend this book to parents wanting to get their young children into robotics.

I bought this book for my 7 year old after reading the rave reviews. My seven year old is high functioning autistic and very into robots atm. This book is way too 'dumbed down' for him. It was honestly a disappointment. None of the projects are very serious or in depth (and only one or two are actual robots). He read through it in one afternoon, sighed in disappointment and after telling me it wasn't really about making robots he said, "I think the vibrobot might be fun... but I want to change some things." (he wasn't really into the idea of it using markers) and he hasn't looked at the book since. I read through it and have to agree with him. It's a neat concept book and has some interesting info, but not much in depth. I'm putting this up on the shelf and expect my younger son to get more out of it in a few years. Since it said, "Build it Yourself" and was geared at younger audiences I expected a book that would walk us through the different kinds of robotics and making them. This is very interesting and goes into the concepts and that is neat, but I just don't feel it has as much practical applications as I was hoping for or as in depth in making the actual robots. It's still a neat book.

I didn't expect much when I purchased this book, but I was pleasantly surprised! It's not just robotic fluff...there is actually quite a but of info in the book including the history if robotics. The projects are fun and engaging. My 7 year old son loves it and has seriously enjoyed doing projects with his parents and older brother. It's a great book overall!

This is a great book that explains not only the history of robots but explains in kid friendly language the different types of robots and how each works. I love the projects it has for making different robots. I used this book with my class in learning about robotics and student were very engaged in the book and projects. Highly recommended.

My 5 year old son is a huge robot fan and enjoys learning about them. This has some simple robot projects that he can easily do and has enjoyed. He also has learned a lot of practical and hands on info. about robots that has helped him deepen his understanding of robots vs. only being interested in them with no real true knowledge about them. I'd highly recommend this book.

Good book to teach kids to give some idea on robotics..

Excellent ouvrage de référence pour un adulte qui veut accompagner un jeune dans la découverte de la robotique. Des activités à peu de frais pour chaque découverte d'une fonction importante de la robotique. En revanche je dois signaler qu'il y a beaucoup de texte et peu d'illustration, et que le tout est en noir et blanc. Ce qui rend le livre peu attractif pour une lecture en autonomie par un enfant. A contrario de la collection Usborne par exemple, qui, quand il s'agit d'expliquer l'ordinateur et le fonctionnement informatique, a optimisé la pédagogie par l'image, rendant le tout parfaitement compréhensible même à un enfant pas tout à fait bilingue.

I highly recommend this book for any child that is interested in creating and wants there creations to work. My 9.5 year is in robotics, builds circuit sets, etc. So I was worried this might not keep his interest but he loved the fact he could make cool things with objects that were already kicking around the house.

I bought the kindle version of the book and started thinking that I had wasted my money, but as I got into the book realised what a great primer this would be for my grandson. As I progressed through the book realised that I could benefit from the book as well, being a returner to electronics, and never really into robotics as they weren't around in the day. I have just ordered the print version of the book, which I will give to my grandson, so together we can have some fun! Thanks Kathy.

Great Book