Amazon.co.uk Review
The Sorcerer is a brilliant inventor whose work keeps him so busy that he never has time to clean. If only the amazing machines he creates could pick up after themselves! Soon a clever idea is put into action and the Sorcerer invents a robot apprentice. But when the apprentice is left alone in the workshop to vacuum, he decides that it would be nice if he were to have his own little helper--and so the fun begins! Ted Dewan's modern version of the classic fairytale is full of excitement, magic and music as, in words and pictures, he brings this cautionary tale to a new audience. --
Philippa Reece
Review
In this rollicking remake of the classic tale, an inventor cobbles together a robot to clean his cluttered workshop, then incautiously leaves the schematics where his new "apprentice" can find them. Setting the inventor's lab in a seedy industrial neighborhood, Dewan (Top Secret, p. 140, etc.) festoons it with enticing junk that hovers right on the edge of recognizability, paying tribute to Dukas's century-old scherzo with backgrounds of intertwined electronic diagrams and musical notations. About to be vacuumed into components by a menacing rank of near-clones, the stubby apprentice, resembling nothing so much as an old canister-style Hoover, is rescued by its maker with a mighty blast of electricity, then affectionately led off for a "nice hot cup of oil." It's a memorable take, capped by a rousing robot cheer: "1, 2, 4, 8, We were made to duplicate." (Kirkus Reviews)
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