Maya and the Robot

Eve L. Ewing's Maya and the Robot is a warm, funny story for 10 year olds about a girl who needs a new friend in fifth grade and finds one at the back of a cupboard.

What happens

It starts at the end, sort of. The school science fair is chaos. Pudding is dripping off a laptop, creamed corn is flying across the hall and the gym teacher's whistle is clogged with mashed potato. In the middle of it all a robot is spinning round flinging food at everyone. It's Maya's robot, and she is in big, big trouble.

Then the story goes back to show how she got there.

Maya loves science. She's been in the same class as Jada and MJ, her two best friends, since they were five. On the first day of fifth grade she finds out they've been put with the fun teacher, the one who used to be a real chemist. Maya gets Ms Rodríguez, who barks. When Ms Rodríguez reads Patricia off the register, Maya is too frozen to tell her she goes by her middle name.

So she escapes to Mr Mac, who runs the everything shop next door to her building and has known her all her life. He asks her to sort out his junk-stuffed storeroom. Behind a pile of boxes, something is looking at her. It's a robot with a metal bucket for a head, tank treads for feet and RALPH written on its back in marker pen. Mr Mac's son built it.

The best thing about Maya is how much she thinks like a scientist. She sorts out a customer's green bananas with an apple and a bag, and she can't look at Ralph's feet without comparing them to a Mars rover. She's also shy, and funny about being shy (who knew you could cry on the playground in fifth grade and survive?), and missing her friends really hurts.

It's gentle and big-hearted, full of family and neighbours who look out for her. If your reader lights up at a science kit or a box of old wires, this is one for them.

What to read next

For another kid inventor with a robot in the workshop, try Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor. Frank and his best friend Watson are trying to bring a homemade robot to life with a lightning storm in his grandpa's garage.