House of Robots is a Children's Book by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein, and the first book in the "House of Robots" series.
Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez is a kid with a manga writer-artist dad, and a robotics engineer mom. As a result, Sammy lives in a house filled to the brim with a wide variety of robots. There's McFetch, the Robot Dog (the only kind of dog they can have due to Sammy's BFF sister's SCID
), Mr. Moppenshine the robot house cleaner and chef, Hayseed the robot farmer/gardener, Brittney 13 the robotic teenage girl, I could go on, but you get the idea, right?
Anyway, if that weren't enough, Sammy's mother has developed a brand new robot to add to their already massive robo-family. Simply called "E", Sammy's mother built him for a special secret purpose that she won't quite divulge. For testing purposes, she is having E accompany Sammy to school, much to his chagrin. No sooner does he show up at the bus stop than he starts doing all kinds of robotic things that end up embarrassing Sammy, like spouting out random factoids, interrupting teachers during their lessons, having a very literal grasp on words, and starting a food fight in the cafeteria.
Over time, however, after all the bugs are worked out, E soon proves to be a hit among the student body. People are actively hanging out with Sammy and his SBFF (Second Best Friend Forever) Harry Hunter Henderson, or Triple H, or just "Trip" as Sammy calls him. Of course, the local bully, Elliot Cooper, still refuses to like E.
The book was released on November 24th, 2014. The book has a sequel, House of Robots: Robots Go Wild!.
House Of Robots contains examples of:
- Alliterative Name: Trip's full name is Harry Hunter Henderson.
- The Bully: Elliot Cooper fills this role for Sammy (whom he calls "Dweebiac"), Trip, and E.
- Caught on Tape: Sammy brings Hayseed and Brittney 13 along to get Cooper Elliot to confess to kidnapping and dismantling E with the help of his brothers, Johnny and Trevor. He brings them specifically because Hayseed has an internal recorder, and Brittney 13 would send a message to the police to come apprehend Elliot.
- Character Narrator: The book is narrated from Sammy's perspective.
- Foodfight!: E ends up starting one in chapter 8. He saw Bobby Hatfield throw a tangerine at Tom Heffernon during lunch in the school cafeteria, and came to the conclusion they were still in gym class. So, he ended up throwing potatoes at Bobby, which makes Tom think E threw the tangerine, and ended up getting pelted with food from both of them. Before long, the cafeteria turns into a war-zone.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X": In chapter 22, when Trip asks Sammy about his mother fixing E, Sammy says that she will, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Trip snort-giggles and says "You said 'butt'!".
- Rhyming Names: One of the robots in the Hayes-Rodriguez household is a drone named Drone Malone.
- Robot Dog: McFetch is a robotic dog that Professor Hayes built. It was built so the family could have a dog that wouldn't upset Maddie's medical condition.
- Robot Girl: Brittney 13, who is programmed to experience "adolescent human emotions".
- Robot Maid: Mr. Moppenshine fills this role for the Hayes-Rodriguez family.
