Gatos vs Robots: Esto es la guerra

Cats vs. Robots #1

by Margaret Stohl, Lewis Peterson, Kay Peterson (Illustrator)

The Robot Federation and the Feline Empire have been at war for eons. And now that fight is coming to a tiny primitive planetoid…Earth. The mission for both cats and robots: retrieve the Singularity Chip. With it, cats can live past their nine lives, and robots are granted eternal battery life.

Meanwhile, twin siblings Max and Min Wengrod are as different as can be. Min always gets good grades, and she loves to read and build robots. Max hates school, and prefers to play games and spend time online with friends.

When Max rescues two kittens and is determined to keep them, Min is horrified that these furballs could ruin her chances at the Battle of the Bots competition. But with hidden forces at play in their own house, and the larger war between cats and robots fast approaching, will the twins be able to put aside their differences before they get caught in the crossfire?  

Genres: Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Animals, Childrens, Juvenile, Cats

384 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2018

About the author

Margaret Stohl is the #1 New York Times, PW, USA Today, LA Times and Internationally bestselling co-author or author of twelve books, including the BEAUTIFUL CREATURES NOVELS, the DANGEROUS CREATURES NOVELS, the ICONS NOVELS, MARVEL'S BLACK WIDOW NOVELS, ROYCE ROLLS & CATS VS ROBOTS THIS IS WAR (forthcoming!) She writes the MIGHTY CAPTAIN MARVEL comic for Marvel Comics (ongoing) and has contributed to countless videogames; currently, she is a Narrative Director at Bungie.

From the author:

Goodreads Peeps! Please note I no longer review the books on my shelf, "stars"-wise. I do list books I read, and they're all automatically marked as 5 stars. That's because a) I don't list books that I didn't like enough to finish and b) I didn't want to delete the ratings I had already given. If I particularly love a book and feel inclined to comment, you'll still see the comments here. Sadly, I have to ask: please don't reproduce these comments on book jackets, websites, or in any other medium for the marketing of books. They're only meant for fellow goodreaders. Thanks so much!

ABOUT ME:

Writing has gotten me in and out of trouble since I was 15 (back then, mostly just in trouble.) For 10 years, I designed &/or wrote for lots of video games, one of which was nominated for “Most Innovative Game Design,” but I lost to a rapping onion. If you know games you get why my two bad beagles are named Zelda and Kirby.

School: I spent more years in it than a person ever should, because let’s face it, reading books is so much better than having a job. I fell in love with American literature at Amherst and Yale, earned an MA in English from Stanford, and studied creative writing under the late great poet George MacBeth at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. I taught Intro to Film as a TA at Yale and Romantic Poetry as a TA at Stanford. Don’t tell the people at Yale but sometimes I taught the section before I’d seen the movie it was about...

I live in Santa Monica, CA, with my family, most of whom were enslaved into working with me in one form or another on my first YA book for Little, Brown. I’m not kidding; when my daughters wanted to go to school I said “Why are you so selfish? Get back in there and edit,” and by said I mean yelled and maybe threw things, it’s all a haze. Now the Beautiful series has wrapped, but you can see the movie on February 13, 2013 or read my new book ICONS on May 7th. Nothing gold can stay, Ponyboy.

Reviews

[Mikey Golczynski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thinly veiled attempt to preach about gender identity.

[Cynthia Parkhill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cats vs. Robots -- This Is War is a delightful and entertaining read. It's the first book in a new children's book series by Margaret Stohl and Lewis Peterson.

The story centers around two galactic empires that consist of seemingly polar opposites -- the Robots, or "Binars," obsessed with order and rules, and the Cats, for whom rules are "generally meant to be followed--but only if you felt like it."

These civilizations' epic battle is now coming to Earth, where humans have invented a "Singularity Chip" that can enable cats to live past their nine lives or grant robots eternal battery life. Each side is determined that the chip must not fall into the enemy's paws -- or grasping appendages.

As the winner of a #GoodreadsGiveaway, I received an advanced reader's copy of this thoroughly engaging book. From start to finish, I found so much to enjoy and appreciate.

To begin with, the book encourages readers to move beyond "binary" thinking, of believing that something has to be all of one thing or all of something else. Girl or Boy. Cat or Robot. Organized or Chaotic. However you delineate things that you believe to be complete opposites.

In earlier comments, I mentioned the book incorporating Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics -- abbreviated in education communities as STEM (or, as I prefer it, STEAM, which also encompasses Arts). Well, robotics, coding, computer programming, are all integral to this story.

But one other area where I feel that readers may benefit is in emotional literacy ... to an ability to identify your feelings. Two human twins, Min and Max, experience a range of emotions as they interact with two mischievous kittens and an older cat whose health is failing.

My thanks to everyone involved in this book's creation for the chance to read this advance copy. This book would be a great addition to the children's collection in a library.

-- Cynthia M. Parkhill, June 26, 2018

********

Learned this morning in an email that I'd won a #GoodreadsGiveaway of 's Cats vs. Robots. My initial impression of this book, when I enrolled in the giveaway, was that it combined my favorite animal, the cat, with an application of STEAM principles (That's Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. As I understand it, educators incorporate STEAM in education to prepare children to live and work in an increasingly technological society.) Well, my intention with any children's book giveaway that I won was to place the book, once I'd read it, into my school library. And for its emphasis on STEAM, plus seeming a really fun read, I thought this book would be an especially good fit. I'm looking forward to receiving this book and, most especially, to reading it.

-- Cynthia M. Parkhill, June 9, 2018

[Ta'Neisha Kemp · Rating 1 out of 5]

The initial description of twins children that have a love of cats and robots creating a fun world full of extraordinary options sounds good. They embark on a fantasy journey after finding two kittens. After a few twists, their cousin is introduced and a whole chapter is dedicated to exploring his choice of not being labeled. That theme introduction is then carried throughout the remainder of the book. Again the initial idea was good but carrying that information throughout the book was completely unnecessary. A non-binary character did not enhance this storyline in any way. There was no reason to introduce young children to this, especially with such detail, on a book that was supposed to be filled with imagination.

[Linnea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I needed some silliness into my life and this was pretty much what the doctor ordered. Space robots, secret cat agents for space cats and something called a singularity chip that both the cats and robots want. The game is on. And there are some humans too, who just try to navigate among it all.

Johnny Heller performs this brilliantly, loved it in all its silliness.

[Pattie Babbitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable! Pounce de Leon for a cat name...purrfection. 😸

[Savannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the ending but I also didn't! And wow, two months! This book is very good just I was busy.

[Tim Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to this one as a family as we were going on a road trip. And and it was decent. A fun little story with some good cat names. It was definitely enjoyable enough of a story.

Though there is one part where we take a break from the narrative so the author can get in some moral posturing. It's pretty annoying. I hate when my fiction preaches to me. I'm fine with having a diverse cast of characters, but it didn't have to break to explain why the author is so great to include a non-binary character and how everyone else is terrible to not accept it. It just didn't flow with the rest of the book. At all.

Of course, afterwards I discovered that at the author is one of the authors from Beautiful Creatures, which was one of the most condescending books I've ever read, so only having a small break to moralize was likely the author actually actually showing restraint.

[Mrs Mommy Booknerd http://mrsmommybooknerd.blogspot.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

#FirstLine ~ Pounce de Leon, second in command and Major Meow-Domo of the great feline Empire, padded toward the entrance of the Grand Throne Room.

Booknerd Braden's Review:
I really liked this book. It was funny and I laughed lots of times. The story line was original and well thought out. My favorite character was Tipsy the robot. The Protos were also very interesting. Normally, I am not a cat fan, but this book put of fun spin on cats because it is about a galactic war between the Feline Empire and Robot Federation. I believe that anyone that likes cats, robots, humor and adventure will love this book.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book to read to my 9 and 11 year old children. Overall the story was entertaining and the characters were enjoyable. I only gave it a 2 star rating however because I was shocked to find a blatant endorsement of sexual identity confusion that is becoming part of our culture, with one of the characters referring to herself as a “they” instead of a “her” or “she”, even though she is a female character. I changed the pronouns on the fly as I was reading to my kids as I don’t wish to indoctrinate them into these obvious falsehoods that don’t line up with the truth as taught in the Bible.

[Kaylena · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some funny and clever stories in this book. However my son and I had a difficult time maintaining interest. There were many different characters and the book frequently bounced between different character perspectives. This made it difficult to get to know and remember all of the characters. We frequently had to look back in earlier chapters to remind ourselves who the characters were. It felt like a very long book and by the end we were just trudging through so that we could finish and move on to a new book.

[Becky B · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a long, ongoing battle between the Robot Federation and the Feline Empire. When both groups get wind of a chip created on a planet called Earth that promises eternal life and an unending battery charge, both groups mobilize to claim the chip as their own. A tech-savvy family who design robots and programming, have a neighbor with a cat, and are completely unaware of the existence of the Robot Federation or the Feline Empire will find themselves right in the middle of this race.

Sounds like it should be an exciting and high action book, right? That's what I thought. And then I found myself over halfway through the book realizing that there had been absolutely no action yet and they'd just finished introducing all the characters. I still held out hopes that it would get more exciting at that point, but nope. No high action. There's not even really a battle of wits. You watch two siblings argue a little (and then get along a little), get an info dump chapter of what it means to be a person who is nonbinary (for a character who only appears in about 12 sentences outside of that chapter...and then delivers the main climax speech which came off a bit preachy), household robots bumble around, the house's AI plots, kittens tear apart two different rooms for a chapter each, and you listen to the various sides head out to find the chip. I had such high hopes for this book. I mean cats vs robots should've been awesome, but it wasn't ever exciting. It could've been hilarious, but it wasn't ever very funny. There was a good message about peacemaking and how getting to know your enemy usually makes them less of an enemy, but it was delivered in a clunky way. The book came off a little preachy and like it never delivered on what the title promised. I think it could've been redeemed with another round of editing. I wish it had. I'd point kids to Maihack's Cleopatra in Space series or Brockington's CatStronauts series if they want space adventures with cats and/or robots. I know many of the students at my school wouldn't make it through this one.

Notes on content: No language issues. No sex scenes. There's that discussion of what it means to be nonbinary and bathroom usage is questioned, but no actual sex-related things. No violence.

[Valerie McEnroe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was there a more ridiculous plot in 2018 than this one? A mom and dad team of robot inventors have created a computer chip that extends life. Doesn't matter if it's a living thing or a nonliving thing. 9 lives not enough? No problem. This chip will give cats as many lives as they want. Robots constantly needing to be recharged at the most inopportune time? No problem. They won't need to plug in anymore. But see...the galaxy is huge. There's all kinds of federations out there. At least I assume there are. The author only talks about the Cat Federation and the Robot Federation, both of which have spies on Earth and WANT THAT CHIP.

Then there's Min and Max (gotta love those names), daughter and son of the robot inventors. Min loves robots. And Max loves.... Cats. Right. Max brings home two kittens which freaks out Min, who is sure they are going to wreck havoc. Which they do. When all is said and done, they get to use the chip for a good cause. But it's all kind of messy and weird and pointless. I want my brain to be stretched a little more when I read.

By the way. The house is controlled by artificial intelligence and the cat from a solar system far far away can talk to people. Whaaa? And don't get me started on cousin Javi, the "non-binary" person. Please use the pronoun "they" when referring to "them." Do we really have to burden kids with that gender crap?

Best sci-fi book of 2018 by far The Truth About Martians.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dear Bumbles of all ages.... I’m about to introduce you to a new rollicking good time of a middle grade novel! “Cats Vs. Robots... This Is War,” by Margaret Stohl and Lewis Peterson is just soooo much fun! Had you any idea that a Great War is being fought on the sly in front of our faces? Me either. Who will win? The cats or the robots? I’m not spoiling it for you! Secret federations and spying abound in this attention grabbing novel! I absolutely recommend this delightful book for middle age and above. Even as an adult I was laughing or loud! (Page 79 though!) Aside from being hilarious, this novel brilliantly and respectfully introduces the topic of non-binary gender identity in language that middle grade brains can understand. I applaud the authors efforts with this. So refreshing to read about! Also, this novel would make a fabulous springboard for discussions on the “good vs. evil” aspects of technology in today’s world. I am really looking forward to talking about this book with my kids! Look for a giveaway coming soon!

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

My 9-year-old son selected this book at the public library. Personally, I am a fan of cats but not of robots. I thought maybe the intersection of the two would be okay for me; alas, it was not.

It was truly arduous for me to read it to him every night. We trudged along two to three chapters at a time, and I felt like we would never finish. (We had to renew the library book three times to get it done.) Where is the “action” in this book? Even the climax was not very climactic!

My son says he gives this book 4 stars, but this is my Goodreads account and my review so I’m going with 1 star. Simple proof that not every book will appeal to every reader! He’s ready for the accompanying book, and I told him he’ll be reading it on his own. I just didn’t enjoy it.

My lonely star for this book is in simple appreciation of representation! There is a non-binary character, Javi, and it provided us the opportunity to talk about what this means and how my son can be supportive of people who identify as non-binary.

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story, fun and well-developed characters, well-written.

I'm a little surprised* and disappointed that there was no discussion on the ethics of robot-cloning a dying cat. The owner was not consulted, nor was the cat, who could have communicated his desires. *(Surprised because earlier in the story there was a careful explanation of what being non-binary means (kind of threw off the narrative, though), which shows that the author is prepared to deal with explaining tricky situations.)

The wrap up was a little hasty, but I can give that a pass since this is just book one, although the rest of the book's pacing was slow comparatively.

I'm intrigued by the setup for book two. I will keep an eye out for it since I like the characters and want to see their problems solved. It's too bad the robot second-in- command turned kind of evil. Especially since technology was treated so favorably otherwise.

[Amy Navarre · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this free Advanced Readers Copy from the 2018 ALA Conference. This review contains my honest opinion.
I feel this book is appropriate for the recommended ages of 8-12 or middle grades 3-7. The premise is very interesting: Cats and Robots waging an intergalactic war. The robot side could be frightening, but in this book it is handled with care. This book provides a great opportunity for children to explore two sides to the same conflict, not only with the Cat/Robot War but also with sibling disputes. There are also opportunities to discuss big emotions and action/reaction to those emotions.
The characters are well-rounded and multi-faceted, the worlds/galaxy of this book is cohesive.
Parents please be aware that this book does gently exemplify current gender principles that are modern and non-traditional.

[Cecilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cute! I loved seeing the interactions between the bots and cats. Several of the cats behaviors I easily see in my own two kitties. I also love the cat's pun names ("Pounce" de Leon, Chairman "Meow")! The bots were fun too, they all had distinct personalities, my favorite being Tipsy. House reminded me a bit of HAL 9000 and GLaDOS too, the AIs with no robotic body. Kinda of like ART too from the Murderbot Dairies series. The kids had a nice contrast too, fitting into the cat vs robot war, and having it all come together in the end with Obi. The inclusion of a non-binary character was cool to see too!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I preface this review by stating that I received this book for free as part of a Goodreads giveaway.

I think this novel will have appeal for more than just its middle grade audience. As a fan of cats and having read almost all of the Beautiful Creatures books (co-authored by Stohl), I was curious about this series starter. Yes, this book does have lots of cats, but it's also humorous and heartfelt. There are many puns to be found that the intended audience may or may not get, but adult readers surely will.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cats vs. Robots is a clever and amusing book where the feline empire and robot federation are in conflict with each other and both head to Earth to retrieve the same new piece of technology. The book switches points of view and includes many interesting characters: human, cat, and robot. This is a unique story and we’re excited to read the sequel.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's all in the title, exactly what it sounds like and more. There has been a war between the Feline Empire and Robot Federation for millennia. Both forces learn that a chip on planet Earth has been invented that has the power to either prolong a cat's nine lives, or give robots the power of an eternal battery. This adventure-packed novel will have you laughing at the cat traits we all know so well, as well as pondering how human robots are capable of being. I'm purr-fectly pleased and eager for more! The war for the chip is on!

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun story that has multiple view points, humor, potty jokes, and some STEAM concepts thrown in for good measure.
This is the first is as series and I think it will appeal to many of my students.

DRC from Edelweiss and Harper Collins

[Alesia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this author! This book was just the amount of silly that I needed to take a break from the serious stuff I had been reading. It was a great book that my husband and I listened to as we did a home improvement project. Cant wait to see how this series turns out.

[Clarabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea how I feel about this book. It wasn't boring but it wasn't gripping. I read it in just a few sittings but was not excited when I picked it back up. A perfectly mediocre book for me. I think its target age would enjoy it more.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

No es una novela autoconclusiva, así que uno se queda a medias esperando a que editen la siguiente.

Algo que odio desde que los editoriales tienen la costumbre de dejarte colgado a la hora de editar sagas...

(Que ocurra depende de que el editorial considere si ha sido rentable o no...)

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Cats vs. Robots: This is War" is the silliest book that I have read this year. Unlike many YA books which are accessible to readers of many ages this one is best left to tween readers. The book does, strongly support STEM topics and the importance of integrity and perseverance.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a 35m so not the target audience. But i still found this book cute. What would be the mortal enemy of space cats that just want to nap all day? Robots of course that hate cats for how chaotic cats are. Liked the ending solution to trying for peace

[Nicole Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really cute chapter book. I'd pick up the second one if it was already written.

[LeeAnn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun enough for middle-grade readers. Creative concept. This is one of those series that kids will check out frequently.

[Melanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hoped for a lot more from this book. The writing drove me crazy, and all the different perspectives were very hard to follow.

[Amy Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am nearly 50 years old, but I still appreciated the punny humor of this book.