Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots

“Do you know the difference between a fact and an opinion?” Rex (Eat Pete!) creates an essential picture book for the times, with a cast of digitally rendered robots as his eager-eyed, rambunctious object lessons. First introducing a yellow, a red, and a blue robot, each with two eyes, the text asks some follow-up questions (“Do any of them have three eyes?... Is there a green robot?”) by way of introducing facts as “anything that can be proven true or false.” Which robot is more fun than the other two, however, is an opinion—“something that you feel and you believe but you cannot prove.” Though opinions are excellent expressions of individuality, they differ from facts. Wading out into the murky waters of discourse, he offers more tips. Listen to other opinions (one robot declares that another who doesn’t like scary movies is “a big baby”), reboot the dialogue (“BEEP!”), and find common ground (“I do like space movies!”). Rex and his robots ultimately make a fun, cogent argument for informed and civil conversation. These robots could teach grown-ups a thing or two. Ages 5–8. [em](Feb.) [/em]