Raging Robots and Unruly Uncles

by Margaret Mahy

The arrival of two single-minded robots convinces twin brothers, wicked Jasper and virtuous Jason, that their own children, who have run away, aren't so bad after all.

Genres: Childrens, Fantasy, Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Margaret Mahy was a well-known New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. While the plots of many of her books have strong supernatural elements, her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up.

Her books The Haunting and The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance both received the Carnegie Medal of the British Library Association. There have 100 children's books, 40 novels, and 20 collections of her stories published. Among her children's books, A Lion in the Meadow and The Seven Chinese Brothers and The Man Whose Mother was a Pirate are considered national classics. Her novels have been translated into German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Catalan and Afrikaans. In addition, some stories have been translated into Russian, Chinese and Icelandic.

For her contributions to children's literature she was made a member of the Order of New Zealand. The Margaret Mahy Medal Award was established by the New Zealand Children's Book Foundation in 1991 to provide recognition of excellence in children's literature, publishing and literacy in New Zealand. In 2006 she was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award (known as the Little Nobel Prize) in recognition of a "lasting contribution to children's literature".

Margaret Mahy died on 23 July 2012.

On 29 April 2013, New Zealand’s top honour for children’s books was renamed the New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret...

Reviews

[Raj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finding this in a pile of books that my cousin was about to throw away over Christmas, I was hit with a wave of pure nostalgic pleasure, so I had to grab it to read again before he did so. It was with a certain amount of trepidation that I did so, though, since books that one loves as a child don't necessarily hold up the cold light of adult inspection. Thankfully, that's not the case for this one, and other than an assumption that girls won't be accepted as electronic engineers, and a rather unfortunate episode of brownface, as the the two robot-haunted brothers try to escape their pursuers using boot polish to disguise themselves as "Middle-Eastern gentlemen", it holds up very well.

There's so much clever wordplay and puns that it's a joy to read, and, I'd imagine, great fun to read out loud. It has a strong central message of following your own dreams, and working hard to achieve them, despite what those around you want, and even has time for a short digression on the free will of humans versus that of our creations.

A wonderful children's book, with some really inventive child-friendly swearing and over the top characters.

[Francesca Pashby · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a brilliant, wackadoodle book! Not the greatest plot in the world, but her use of language, both invented and real, is sublime. I read it to my 10 year old, who was thoroughly absorbed, even though he hadn't heard quite a number of the words before.

[Gaia Della · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un romanzo carino e divertente.

[Janelle]

Dnf. It didn’t take me long to figure out this wasn’t for me.

[Maria Elmvang · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first encountered Margaret Mahy in general and Raging Robots and Unruly Uncles in particular when Dad read this aloud to us back in 1990. Ever since then, the book has popped up my in thoughts on a regular basis, but I was never really able to find it anywhere, so I forgot about it again.

Then, when I was browsing Amazon.co.uk the other day, I found that it was finally available from Amazon Marketplace for a decent price, and naturally went straight out and bought it. To my great joy it arrived in the mail a mere 4 busines days later.

Great was my trepidation when I picked it up... would it live up to my expectations? I remembered it as a hilarious story with lots of mischief, but would my 32-year-old-self think likewise?

Fortunately the answer was yes. It fully stood the test of time and I left my husband much bemused by laughing out loud at more than one occasion, without being able to tell him exactly why.

My inner 10-year-old is much appeased.

[Sara Booklover · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simpatico e leggero, per bambini delle elementari. Per via della fantasiosità di alcuni scenari e personaggi si sente un po' la vicinanza con libri come "Quattro pirati e mezzo" ma rimane comunque a una spanna al di sotto, non riesce a raggiungere i picchi geniali e deliziosi di quella fantastica storia.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An old favorite of mine! I love the wordplay and the idea of heroism and villainy taken to petty extremes, as well as the unlikely overnight success of the child-run businesses. It storms its way into a happy ending deserving of an encore!

[fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of my favourites as a kid that's still a delight to read.