Sci-Fi: A Day with Wilbur Robinson
Author and Illustrator: William Joyce
Genre: Science Fiction
Major Awards: N/A
Age Group: 4-9 years old
A Day with Wilbur Robinson, by William Joyce tells the story of a "dull day" according to Wilbur Robinson, but to anyone else it was nothing short of extraordinary. The story is told from the perspective of Wilbur's friend. From the writing, to the illustrations in the book anyone could see how the day was anything but dull.When Wilbur's friend arrived he was greeted by Wilbur and his two uncles Dmitri and Spike who were sitting in flower pots. When they walked into the house Wilbur's aunt Billie was playing with her "train set" that was an actual train, his cousin Pete was walking the "cats" who were in fact tigers, and his uncle Gaston was in the family cannon. They then went out into the yard where Mr. Robinson and their robot Carl were using a matter detector to look for grandfathers teeth and asked the boys to help them while asking around if anyone else had seen them too. The boys asked uncle Judlow, who was relaxing in the brain augmentor, but he hadn't seen them. They went on to ask Wilbur's sisters Tallulah and Blanche who were eating grapes, and trying on a new prom dress, but they hadn't seen grandfathers teeth either. They then went on to ask Uncle Laszlo who was trying out his new anti-gravity machine and he hadn't seen them either. The boys couldn't find grandfathers teeth anywhere so they decided to ask grandfather himself to see if he remembered where he left them. When they went to see grandfather he was working with his dancing frog band with Mr. Ellington and Mr. Armstrong, but he hadn't seen them. The boys kept looking for grandfather Robinson's teeth until it was dinner time. After dinner, Mrs. Robinson was reading Tarzan of the Apes when one of the frogs got up and gave a Tarzan yodel and what would you know, when the frog opened his mouth, he was wearing grandfathers teeth. The whole family laughed and the boys spent the rest of the night listening to Uncle Arts stories of Space travel until it was time to leave in the morning.
A Day with Wilbur Robinson, by William Joyce tells the story of a "dull day" according to Wilbur Robinson, but to anyone else it was nothing short of extraordinary. The story is told from the perspective of Wilbur's friend. From the writing, to the illustrations in the book anyone could see how the day was anything but dull.When Wilbur's friend arrived he was greeted by Wilbur and his two uncles Dmitri and Spike who were sitting in flower pots. When they walked into the house Wilbur's aunt Billie was playing with her "train set" that was an actual train, his cousin Pete was walking the "cats" who were in fact tigers, and his uncle Gaston was in the family cannon. They then went out into the yard where Mr. Robinson and their robot Carl were using a matter detector to look for grandfathers teeth and asked the boys to help them while asking around if anyone else had seen them too. The boys asked uncle Judlow, who was relaxing in the brain augmentor, but he hadn't seen them. They went on to ask Wilbur's sisters Tallulah and Blanche who were eating grapes, and trying on a new prom dress, but they hadn't seen grandfathers teeth either. They then went on to ask Uncle Laszlo who was trying out his new anti-gravity machine and he hadn't seen them either. The boys couldn't find grandfathers teeth anywhere so they decided to ask grandfather himself to see if he remembered where he left them. When they went to see grandfather he was working with his dancing frog band with Mr. Ellington and Mr. Armstrong, but he hadn't seen them. The boys kept looking for grandfather Robinson's teeth until it was dinner time. After dinner, Mrs. Robinson was reading Tarzan of the Apes when one of the frogs got up and gave a Tarzan yodel and what would you know, when the frog opened his mouth, he was wearing grandfathers teeth. The whole family laughed and the boys spent the rest of the night listening to Uncle Arts stories of Space travel until it was time to leave in the morning.
When I was much younger I had seen the movie Meet the Robinson's and absolutely loved it. Although, I never knew it was inspired by a book until now, and even though I haven't seen the movie in years, reading the book brought back the wonderful fantastical elements that I remember loving from watching the movie. I think this would make an excellent book for any PreK- 3rd grade classroom library. I also believe that the story would make an excellent story for a read aloud during literacy time. This book is truly unique; it's almost as if there are two stories in one book. The writing itself is telling a story, and the incredible illustrations are telling another. I truly believe kids would love to have the story read to them. Even before the reading, I would take a picture walk. I would show the students the images of the story and ask them questions and see their predictions of what they think the story is about. I would read the story to the students to see if their predictions were true, and note the parallels between the illustrations and the words such as when Wilbur's Cousin Pete was walking "cats" that were actually tigers.
Love the idea of taking a picture walk before reading!
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