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A review by halfwaytoaugust
The Trouble with Robots by Michelle Mohrweis
5.0
Evelyn and Allie are complete opposites of each other, but they get placed on the same robotics team - the one Evelyn is struggling to lead. When they learn the principle wants to cut robotics program, can they all pull it together to succeed? Can Evelyn learn to lead her team so she can remain the team leader? And can Allie contain her outbursts so she's not kicked out of robotics, and also her school?
This book gets one giant YES from me. It's told in dual POV with chapters from Evelyn & Allie's POV and we see so much character growth within both of them.
Evelyn is autistic and is struggling to lead her robotics team. She struggles in communication and wanting everything to be perfect, so she does all the work. When she's threatened with losing her spot as team leader, she tries to improve her leadership skills. However, she can't do it alone. She needs the help of Allie, who she got off on the wrong foot with.
Allie is suffering from grief and has outbursts of anger with her teachers. This has resulted in her being kicked out of class after class, and robotics is her last chance. She hates that she's put into robotics and acts out once again. That is, until she learns just how she can be helpful to the robotics team.
I'll leave all the details of just how these characters achieve their character growth a surprise, but it's wonderful to read both of their perspectives, and to see just how they function as people and how they overcome their difficulties together.
The representation in this book is so well done and we have so much of it, from queerness to BIPOC characters to disability and more. This is going to be such an important book for middle grade readers and even for older readers as well who will see themselves here.
We also see a little bit of Allie questioning her sexual and romantic orientations, and we see questioning of aro & ace identities. I absolutely love seeing this in middle grade books because Allie's thoughts and feelings so much mirrored my thoughts and feelings in middle school, only I didn't have the words to define or even understand it. I really hope this book will help young questioning aro & ace kids and give them the words necessary to learn about themselves.
Rep: autistic MC, MC with anxiety, bi MC, questioning aroace MC, achillean SCs, nonbinary SC, BIPOC SCs, SC with cerebral palsy
CW: bullying, car crash (past), parental death (past), grief/anger, autistic meltdown, money insecurity, verbal abuse
Rating system:
5 - absolutely love, little-to-no dislikes that did not impact my reading experience
4 - great book, minor dislikes that did have an impact on my reading experience
3 - good/decent book but for some reason did not hook me or there were some problematic things that just were not addressed or greatly impacted my reading experience
2 - is either a book I did not click with and did not enjoy, problematic aspects are not addressed and severely impacted my reading experience, or I DNF'd but think it has potential for others
1 - is very problematic, I would not recommend the book to anyone
Thank you to Netgalley & Peachtree for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected pub date: September 20, 2022.
This book gets one giant YES from me. It's told in dual POV with chapters from Evelyn & Allie's POV and we see so much character growth within both of them.
Evelyn is autistic and is struggling to lead her robotics team. She struggles in communication and wanting everything to be perfect, so she does all the work. When she's threatened with losing her spot as team leader, she tries to improve her leadership skills. However, she can't do it alone. She needs the help of Allie, who she got off on the wrong foot with.
Allie is suffering from grief and has outbursts of anger with her teachers. This has resulted in her being kicked out of class after class, and robotics is her last chance. She hates that she's put into robotics and acts out once again. That is, until she learns just how she can be helpful to the robotics team.
I'll leave all the details of just how these characters achieve their character growth a surprise, but it's wonderful to read both of their perspectives, and to see just how they function as people and how they overcome their difficulties together.
The representation in this book is so well done and we have so much of it, from queerness to BIPOC characters to disability and more. This is going to be such an important book for middle grade readers and even for older readers as well who will see themselves here.
We also see a little bit of Allie questioning her sexual and romantic orientations, and we see questioning of aro & ace identities. I absolutely love seeing this in middle grade books because Allie's thoughts and feelings so much mirrored my thoughts and feelings in middle school, only I didn't have the words to define or even understand it. I really hope this book will help young questioning aro & ace kids and give them the words necessary to learn about themselves.
Rep: autistic MC, MC with anxiety, bi MC, questioning aroace MC, achillean SCs, nonbinary SC, BIPOC SCs, SC with cerebral palsy
CW: bullying, car crash (past), parental death (past), grief/anger, autistic meltdown, money insecurity, verbal abuse
Rating system:
5 - absolutely love, little-to-no dislikes that did not impact my reading experience
4 - great book, minor dislikes that did have an impact on my reading experience
3 - good/decent book but for some reason did not hook me or there were some problematic things that just were not addressed or greatly impacted my reading experience
2 - is either a book I did not click with and did not enjoy, problematic aspects are not addressed and severely impacted my reading experience, or I DNF'd but think it has potential for others
1 - is very problematic, I would not recommend the book to anyone
Thank you to Netgalley & Peachtree for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected pub date: September 20, 2022.