Atomic Ace and the Robot Rampage

by Jeff Weigel

Overview

It's an ordinary day for Atomic Ace and his family until the evil Roboconqueror accidentally sends his mechanoid army after Ace's son instead of Ace himself. With Ace busy in space diverting a meteor threat, who will be on Earth to save the day?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807504857
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	01/01/2006
Series:	Albert Whitman Prairie Paperback Ser.
Edition description:	1ST
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.16(d)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

Editorial Reviews

After his debut in Atomic Ace: He's Just My Dad (PW wrote, "Comic-strip panels of a Spandex-clad `Atomic Ace' alternate with cozy images of Ace's family in this humorous look at a hero balancing work and home"), the middle-school boy narrator returns in Atomic Ace and the Robot Rampage by Jeff Weigel, in which the narrator must fend off an attack of robots at his school. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

In this second book about Atomic Ace, our narrator extols the prowess of his hero dad in rhyme, while the visual tale is told in comic-book graphic novel style. As Ace's son goes off to school, the evil Roboconquerer has been released from prison and is rounding up his robots for revenge on Atomic Ace. But a tracking device leads the robots to his son instead. Another hero, Energy Angel, who turns out to be his mother, luckily arrives in time to snatch him to safety. Meanwhile Atomic Ace is alerted to capture Roboconquerer and put his robots to helpful work instead. The hard binding and the rhyming text make this appear like a picturebook, with more double-page scenes than a typical comic book, along with the small superimposed action scenes produced with ink and brush and scanned and colored in Adobe Photoshop. The quasi-naturalistic drawing style and speech balloons, however, derive directly from the comic book family.

Children's Literature - Ken Marantz

Gr 1-3-A new adventure told in rhyme by the author of Atomic Ace: (He's Just My Dad) (Albert Whitman, 2004). Boldly colored comic-book panels showing Ace in action are interspersed with the somewhat more mundane scenes of his son at home and at school. That is, until the worlds collide, when Atomic Ace's nemesis, Roboconqueror, unleashes a robot army that invades the boy's classroom. Ace is off in space protecting the planet and is too far away to rescue his son. Just when he is about to meet his doom, he is whisked away by another superhero-with a strangely familiar face. It is Energy Angel, aka Mom, who saves the day. It turns out that she had been quite the superhero until she had her son, and misses the old days. Dad enlists the services of the vanquished robot army to help with household duties to free up her time, and she is back in the superhero business. While some of the rhymes seem a bit forced, the story flows for the most part, and the bold, graphic layout with intricate details will attract readers. Purchase where the first book is popular.-DeAnn Okamura, San Mateo County Library, CA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Having extolled the merits of his superhero father in Atomic Ace (He's Just My Dad) (2004), a lad discovers that his mom has hidden talents too in this engaging follow-up. No sooner does his spandex-clad dad zoom off into space to deal with an incoming swarm of meteors than another swarm-this one of red-eyed robots sent by cyborg baddie Roboconqueror-bursts through his classroom window. It looks like curtains for sure, but rescue comes from an unexpected source as lightning-wielding Energy Angel swoops out of retirement to zap the metal marauders, and the sprout discovers that he has not one, but two superhero parents. Illustrated with brightly colored comics-style panels inset into larger scenes, this rhymed ruckus can be read with equal ease as a straightforward Pow!-Zap!-Save-the-Earth adventure or a tongue-in-cheek takeoff-especially as, in the end, after Mom's return to active duty is expedited by a corps of robots rewired to do the domestic chores, Atomic Ace flies off with a wink. Shelve it next to Bob McLeod's Superhero ABC (January 2006) and Ross MacDonald's Another Perfect Day (2002). (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews