ROVER AND SPECK

Two robots explore a strange planet and form a friendship along the way.

Rover’s landing on an unidentified planet is a bit rough, resulting in a damaged communication antenna, but the wheeled robot explorer can still search the planet for new discoveries. One search unearths Speck (which stands for Special Planet Explorer Class-K), an enthusiastic, helpful, slightly ditzy, music-loving robot explorer. When the robots discover “large life-forms composed of solid mineral compounds,” otherwise known as giant rock people, Speck’s opera music prevents the creatures from crushing them; instead, they start dancing. Rocky, one of the creatures, befriends Rover and Speck and shares his creative rock art, including a huge stone arena with great acoustics. Here, with encouragement from the robots, the rock people create percussion background music, and soon Rocky and his friends break into song (“Rocks will, rocks will help you! / Rocks will, rocks will help you!”). Although the music isn’t loud enough to call Rover’s ship, Rover, with help from Speck and the rock people, finds another way to make contact. Amusing science-speak like “ignitable mineral masses” (coal) and “nearest spheroid of luminous stellar plasma” (the sun) dot the text, and periodic “Fun Science Facts” add tidbits of relevant information about minerals, microseconds, space caves, and more—and sometimes a joke. Brightly colored cartoon illustrations tell the story clearly and bring to life earnest Rover, adorable Speck, and the fun-loving rock people.

An appealing tale that suggests that music is the path to interplanetary harmony.