The Everything Machine by Matt Novak

On planet Quirk, they have an Everything Machine that does all of the work.  The machine cooks, cleans, gardens, paints, and even colors in the children’s coloring books and scratches people’s backs.  But one day, the machine stopped working.  There was no noise from its gears and whirring.  The people tried to fix it, but nothing worked.  Then they found a label that told them to call a repairman from Planet Bing Bong.  He immediately arrived and took the machine apart.  But now what were they to do!  They tried to help themselves but it was very hard to suddenly have to care for yourself.  Eventually it got easier and then it became fun to cook, garden, and color.  After months and months, the machine was finally fixed.  The problem was then that the people liked doing things themselves, so what could they do with the Everything Machine?

A brilliant statement on modern life and technology, this book is filled with humor both in its text and illustrations which keeps it from becoming heavy handed.  Novak’s illustrations feature cartoon-like aliens which are very human except for their single antenna topped with a red ball.  Novak excels at framed illustrations that show the people struggling to do things for themselves.  Nearly wordless, that two-page spread is pure vaudeville humor that every child will love. 

Highly recommended, this book has Everything and humor too.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from library copy.