Wendel's Workshop

Wendel's Workshop by Chris Riddell
2010

     Wendel the mouse was an inventor.  He was so busy trying out new inventions that he didn't have any time to tidy up his workshop.  Wendel decided he needed help so he created a robot, Clunk.  Clunk wasn't perfect, and after making a couple of mistakes, Wendel threw him down the rubbish chute.  He created another robot, Wendelbot, who started as a perfect robot, cleaning everything in his path.  But then, Wendelbot's obsession with tidiness made him start pulverizing Wendel's furniture and ended up throwing the poor  mouse down the chute.  Wendel found himself sorrounded by all the scrap he had discarded and found Clunk.  Wendel comes up with a plan and uses the scrap to create new robots that run into the house causing such a mess that Wendelbot short circuits and explodes.  At the end, Wendel learns to appreciate the little imperfections of his robot inventions.
     Wendel's Workshop will appeal to robot lovers.  It's written in British English, so I did have to explain some of the vocabulary to my four year old, but that didn't prevent him from really enjoying the entertaining story and the detailed illustrations. The little ones will want to go back and stare at the quirky robots.