Robotic Parenting

“...All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair...”

- Mitch Albom -

Samuel Hayes-Rodriguez and E

While trying to reduce my BBW's load from couple years ago, I started to read another middle-grade series to lose the tension from previous reading session. Well, dystopia and thriller are not dealing well with your emotion on daily basis, so I have to read other genres. HOUSE OF ROBOTS by cross-genres author James Patterson came to my binge-reading time. And gladly, I finished three books of this series, feeling a bit warmth, sadness, even a bit anger. Why?

HOUSE OF ROBOTS is a series of a nice lil boy named Samuel Hayes-Rodriguez. Sammy -his nickname- has a high tech prof mother-Elizabeth Hayes and a super creative manga artist-Noah Rodriguez. Sammy also has a sister, Maddie Hayes-Rodriguez, who suffers from Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), an inherited disease that worsens the immune system. Maddie couldn't go out from her room, she's vulnerable and practically would have fatal condition due to minor infections. Brilliant Liz Hayes build many robots for taking care every daily basis of housekeeping function and keep Maddie safe.

One day, a new robot is introduced to their life. Egghead a.k.a E is a highly built artificial intelligence robot who will attend school with Sammy. E is a special robot built by prof Hayes to help Maddie attend school. But at first, it seemed hard for Sammy to adapt with this new bro-bot. But, many adventures and obstacles ahead made they built a lovely friendship to take every hardships together, a bond that I thought couldn't be given by Sammy's parents. In reality, Maddie is the one who always support Sammy through every hard times. That's why Sammy really love his lil sis.

HOUSE OF ROBOTS, ROBOTS GO WILD, and ROBOTS REVOLUTION show an unnatural parenting way of prof Hayes and Mr.Rodriguez. They love Sammy and Maddie, but I personally think that they've been to far with their own world. On some part of the stories, I was really upset about how they treated Sammy, ignored him, and let Sammy solved problems with the robots. Sammy is really a sweet brother, loves his sister so much, and becoming a super patient boy. Sammy is their son too. But they treated him unfair. I really felt that and felt sad and angry at the same time. Fortunately, Sammy really has a wide warm heart. His struggling with jealousy, fear, and feeling ignored didn't turn him into a bitter boy. He's a kind of a strong yet vulnerable kid with super kind heart. And I'm still upset because not any of his parents said sorry of what they did to him.

HOUSE OF ROBOTS is an easy to read-series with exciting illustration inside. The plot, the stories, were yet simple but they hit me well. I dunno what kind of parent  I will be in the future, but I have to make sure that I will learn from Sammy's family. They are really lucky to have Sammy. This boy is a real gem. You will love him. With these light problems, Patterson showed a real undercover problem beneath. This series shows another perspective of parenting, the unnatural way, the robotic way. Is it better? Is it okay? Let you decide it by yourself after reading.

Well, another nice reading season provided by James Patterson. If you love his MIDDLE SCHOOL SERIES (miss you Rafe), you may read these ones too..^^

“Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.”

- Oscar Wilde -