Norby and the Terrified Taxi

Janet and Isaac Asimov's Norby and the Terrified Taxi is a space adventure for 9 year olds about a small robot, a flying taxi with lovely manners and a villain who calls himself Garc the Great.

What happens

Norby is a little barrel of a robot with a domed hat and eyes on the front and back of his head. He's also the only being around who can take a spaceship through hyperspace, and even through time. He doesn't always get it right. (He will never, ever admit that.)

His owner Jeff is a space cadet, and Jeff's big brother Fargo is getting married in Manhattan. All Norby has to do is get everyone there on time.

He doesn't. First stop is Earth four billion years ago, with comets raining down. Second stop is a Cretaceous sea, with a baby plesiosaur peering in at the ship and a T. rex coming over the hill. Admiral Yobo, the huge booming head of Space Command, is not amused.

They do make the wedding in the end (just). Then, as the guests leave, a swarm of air taxis circles over the garden and pulls Norby up into the middle of them.

Someone is taking over machines. The only taxi who can resist is Lizzie, a yellow cab with a clever robot brain and beautiful manners, who calls everyone "kind sirs". She sets off in pursuit.

It's a very lively read. Norby is boastful and muddled and completely lovable. Jeff and Norby can talk to each other mind to mind, which your reader gets to listen in on. And there's Oola, a pet who can turn into any animal you happen to be thinking of.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Jeff is nearly sixteen, so he's a good deal older than the readers on this shelf. The vocabulary is big too (nuptials, perpetrates, estuary). It's all aimed at a confident reader who enjoys looking things up. One quick scene has a sea reptile catching a flying reptile, with blood in the water.

It's also not the first Norby adventure. The characters refer back to earlier trips, but a newcomer can pick it all up as they go.

What to read next

If your reader takes a shine to the admiral, Norby and Yobo's Great Adventure has Yobo dragging Jeff and Norby into his new hobby, taking holographic films with a very expensive camera.