When you play with life

and bolt it into place,
dreams float on.

This book has landed itself smack dab in the middle of a pile of manga/graphic novel book trading! :D

I have let the fuse and off it goes, to land soundly on her house. With any luck, it'll go right through the window! This is war lady!! :D :D :D

Woohoo! I got home from a day-trip to the Harbor Islands on this hot summer day to find a Big Box O' Books! I asked for this because it looks charming and quirky, qualities I appreciate.

Many thanks!

Later: Very charming story indeed, and very poignant, too... and all without words! A dog orders a robot-kit, assembles it, and has lots of fun with its new friend - until dog and robot go to the beach, and both of them forget (if they ever knew) that metal can rust. The dog has to leave the now-immobile robot behind while he searches for a way to fix things, but events conspire to keep the two apart, as time passes and they each dream of ways in which things had turned out differently. There are some rather scary scenes - the poor robot being used for emergency-repair parts, for example - and some heart-wrenching ones, such as when the dog thinks his robot has come home only to find out it's someone in a Halloween costume. The dog tries to make new friends - anteaters, a penguin and a snowman, a bird - but doesn't forget his old robot-friend. And the robot copes surprisingly well with his fate, dreaming of a cloud cuddling him to sleep...

I was surprised at the turn taken by the story, which kept me enthralled all the way through. And if I got a little sniffly by the end, well, what's wrong with that? {wry grin}

I'm taking this to the Boston BookCrossers meetup at Panera Bread in Brookline, for anyone who'd like to read it - whether you're attending the meetup or not! Hope someone enjoys the book!