The curse of the vampire robot by Graeme Base

Deep in the Scottish Highlands, many years from now ...Gertie Gif, a lowly cleaning droid from the village of Loch Lan, sets out on an heroic quest to liberate her fellow robo-folk from the curse of a legendary, battery-draining laptop who lives in the castle on the hill.

And with this introduction, Graeme Base creates a story that will appeal to all readers, the computer obsessed and the art lovers, the children who adore rhyming stories and the parents who are looking for something a little different to amuse and engage both themselves and their children.  This is not a book that will scare children but it will keep them on the edges of their seats until the end. 

The curse of the Vampire Robot is set in the future where robots have replaced humans to the point of sharing all of our emotions and idiosyncrasies.  The main character is a brave cleaning drone who travels to the castle on the hill to battle the “vampire” laptop – an energy draining beast.  Along the way she meets many characters including a (soft)ware-wolf and policeman PC Web and witnesses the aftermath of an attack by Voltoid.  The text is full of references to computers with some amazing rhymes set in a format that would be familiar to readers of Graeme Base’s other books. Unlike his other books, all the illustrations are black and white and this adds to the story and the ominous nature of the story without making it too scary for young children. The added details that are synonymous with the authors style, such as a desk-top mouse that looks similar to the real animal and a bat-like lap-top flying above the castle will ensure that even the youngest readers can find something to giggle about and love about this book.

I loved this book and would recommend it highly, it is a book that would fit in any bookshelf and would be brilliant for the classroom to use for story telling, art lessons and book studies. 

This book has many links to classics tales that older readers could use for a book study; an ordinary person who becomes a hero, a journey of danger and a battle between good and evil, all set in a computer-centric world, although they would also enjoy the story on its own too. 

Themes: Vampires, Heroes, Computers, Rhyming, Journey, Crime, Robots, Future.

Mhairi Alcorn