First published 1966
Andy Buckram knows his way around tin cans. He uses small ones to hold fishing worms and larger ones to bail water from leaky boats. He has crafted doorstoppers by filling cans with sand and made cowbells with wire clappers and small stones. Then Andy reads a newspaper story about a California boy who constructed seven robots from cans, including one that stands six feet ten inches tall. The article captures Andy's imagination completely. Building robots requires real skill and cleverness, but Andy figures if that California boy managed it, he can too. Andy sets out to prove that tin cans can become something far more ambitious than doorstoppers or cowbells. His determination to match and perhaps exceed the California boy's achievement drives him forward into the challenging world of robot construction.
Genres: fiction, science-fiction, 20th-century, adventure
Vibes: thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, underdog
Setting: California
Period: 20th-century
192 pages · Hardcover · Viking Press