Robot Santa: The Further Adventures of Santa's Twin
Grade 2-5&ndash;In this sequel toSanta's Twin(Morrow, 1996), the big man's brother Bob tries to help out by building a robotic Santa and reindeer, and trains a gorilla to drive the rocket-powered sleigh. Sure enough, things go wrong; by the time the surrogate St. Nick reaches his first house, he's having major software trouble and is downright scary. Meanwhile, the gorilla takes over the kitchen and starts cooking up a storm. Luckily, Emily and Lottie (stars of the first book) restore order and sanity, with some help from their dog Woofer and the real Santa. The tale is told in many, many rhyming stanzas, which can be rather exhausting to read, but there are enough laughs, wordplay, and clever twists to hold the interest of most kids, especially if they hear it read aloud. The illustrations are slick, smooth, and rather stiff, which works well with the robotic characters but not so well with the real ones; Emily and Lottie look as though they are made of plastic. IfSanta's Twinis popular at your library, this title will be a hit as well.&ndash;E. M.Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.