The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess

In his children's book debut, Gauld demonstrates his love for odd, funny, invented archetypes (such as the Queen of the Mushrooms) while elsewhere playing it absolutely straight, showing respect for his audience and for the fairy-tale form.

Gauld's crisp, clear art, along with captivating small details in backgrounds and endpapers, add richness to the narrative. . . . Gauld's fairy tale feels both timeless and completely new; utterly fresh, yet like a story heard long ago and finally found again. Enchanting.

The beautifully worded narrative and engaging artwork combine to give this picture book its considerable appeal. . . . A captivating, original fairy tale.

This invented fairy tale by cartoonist Gauld (Mooncop, for adults) offers whimsy, imaginative power, and narrative poise. When a king and a queen longing for offspring each see an expert about the topic, an inventor creates a wooden robot, and a witch charms a log into a princess who has a secret: she turns back into a log if she falls asleep. Though the children are devoted to each other, the robot fails to conjure the princess anew one fateful morning ("Awake, little log, awake"), and a maid tosses the seemingly out-of-place log out the window. The robot gives chase as the princess hurtles downhill and into a gigantic boatload of lumber headed for the frozen North: "That log is the most precious thing in the world to me," he says, as he follows it on its journey. The rest of the story unfolds with amusing fairy-tale inevitability ("he had too many adventures to recount here" precedes a paneled page of humorous scenarios) as Gauld's stick-figure characters and clean, flat panel artwork deliver visual information with the detailed calm of a map or a set of instructions. Ages 4-8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Aug.)

Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

"What an astonishingly sweet book. I worried about the log princess, loved all the adventures we never saw, and cheered the family of beetles."—Neil Gaiman

"A wooden masterpiece."—Lemony Snicket

"The part about the witch is really, really good."—Lisa Brown

"Tom Gauld has created a masterful classic fairytale of a picture book that hits in all the right ways. In his inimitable style, he has squeezed royalty, robots, witches, inventors, trolls, sea-captains, forests, ghosts, and... beetles (!) into a beautiful, odd, adventurous and satisfying story. All wrapped up, of course, with the bow of sibling love."—Oliver Jeffers

"There's a whole universe within these pages. Fun to read, clever, and kind."—Jillian Tamaki

"Tom Gauld is one of the best storytellers working and everything he does so well is here - it is beautiful, immersive, expertly told, and breathes completely on its own. I am jealous of it."—Jon Klassen

"I didn't know the world needed another fairy tale until I read this funny, beautiful, perfect book."—Carson Ellis

"Written and illustrated by an award-winning cartoonist and graphic novelist, this book spins a modern day fairytale which introduces young readers to a magical universe chock-full of interesting characters. Children will pour over the whimsical cartoon-style pen drawings detailed with cross hatching and colored in muted tones as they search for objects and characters shown in the background throughout the story."—School Library Connection