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Robo-Sauce by Adam Rubin Book Review

Robo-Sauce by Adam Rubin
Illustrations by Daniel Salmieri
Publisher: Dial Books
Release Date: October 20, 2015

4 cups of Tumbleberries. 1 sprig of Sparkenfarfle. A few other random things added in and Flash Bang Boom, you have a recipe for Robo-Sauce.

This book is fantastically fun. One kid plays robots until he turns everyone into robots, with a fun...and quite literal twist at the end.

What we really need to talk about with this book is the production quality. For those who need reminding, book production is what I do for a living and after reading this book I took it to work the next day to show my boss and all our designers, because it was that cool. Let's tick off the things that make this book different...and expensive. First is the fact that this book is printed with five colors, the fifth being a bright orange neon spot color that really stands out in the world of traditional CMYK. The second is one of the most fabulous flaps I have ever seen. About 2/3 of the way through the book, a page pulls out and turns into an alternative jacket. (see the video below for an example). This pullout has metallic spot color and turns the story into another book...in a way. Now, let's be honest, this book is not going to hold up very well to multiple reads at the hands of grabby little ones. On a design level it is awesome, but on a practical level, not so much. Don't get me wrong, kids are going to love this one, it's just a book that parents should probably keep on a high shelf to be read with supervision and librarians will probably pass on.

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