Product Description

Dean Koontz kicks the holidayseason into high gear with a wildly inventive and wickedly funny sequel to his perennial Christmas bestseller Santa's Twin.

The Claus family's bad seed, Bob, is back and dishing out a second helping of holiday havoc and headaches for his twin brother, Santa. Exactly a year has passed since Bob kidnapped Santa and visited Charlotte and Emily in his stead, bearing gifts of mud pies, cat poop, and broccoli. After his defeat at the hands of the two brave sisters, Bob has worked hard to redeem himself in Santa's eyes. Unfortunately Bob's spare time has been spent secretly building a robot Santa Claus. Super Santa One was designed to help Santa halve his delivery time, but Bob has left a screw loose on his creation (several screws, actually), and this Christmas Eve, a badly malfunctioning robot Santa Claus is coming to town.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #330368 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-01
• Released on: 2004-09-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 72 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 2-5–In this sequel to Santa's Twin (Morrow, 1996), the big man's brother Bob tries to help out by building a robotic Santa and reindeer, and trains a gorilla to drive the rocket-powered sleigh. Sure enough, things go wrong; by the time the surrogate St. Nick reaches his first house, he's having major software trouble and is downright scary. Meanwhile, the gorilla takes over the kitchen and starts cooking up a storm. Luckily, Emily and Lottie (stars of the first book) restore order and sanity, with some help from their dog Woofer and the real Santa. The tale is told in many, many rhyming stanzas, which can be rather exhausting to read, but there are enough laughs, wordplay, and clever twists to hold the interest of most kids, especially if they hear it read aloud. The illustrations are slick, smooth, and rather stiff, which works well with the robotic characters but not so well with the real ones; Emily and Lottie look as though they are made of plastic. If Santa's Twin is popular at your library, this title will be a hit as well.–E. M.
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About the Author
Dean Koontz was born in Everett, Pennsylvania, and grew up in nearby Bedford. When he was a senior in college, he won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition and has been writing ever since. Today he is a world-famous author whose novels have sold 225 million copies in thirty-eight languages. He has numerous New York Times adult best-sellers, including his most recent From The Corner Of His Eye. Dean Koontz is also the author of the children's book Santa's Twin. He lives in southern California.

Customer Reviews

Original Santa's Twin is Still the Best
The sequel to Dean Koontz's sensational picture book Santa's Twin although entertaining in its own right, like most sequels is no where near the groundbreaking quality of the original masterpiece. Koontz has however again accomplished what other usual writers of adult thrillers such as James Patterson have tired and failed at, by writing a great children's picture book whose quality would sell the book alone without needing to rely on the author's famous name to put it on the best seller lists.

In Robot Santa a year has passed since Charlotte and Emily saved Santa and Christmas from Santa's evil brother Bob. Now reformed and leaving his evil past behind him Bob has decided to redeem himself by training a gorilla to drive a sleigh manned by a robot Santa he built to ease the workload of Christmas Eve. Of course the gorilla gets bored and Robot Santa malfunctions and it is up to Charlotte and Emily to save Christmas once again.

Robot Santa again has the rhyming style and great artwork that the original contained. Some of the rhymes don't flow as easily as the first book though and the quality of the story wasn't quite up there with the original classic. Fans of Dean Koontz or the original Santa's Twin will definitely want to check this out though.

Another tale of Christmas prose and delights...
A year ago, Emmy and Lottie, two tough little sisters, did the impossible--they defeated Bob Claus, Santa's evil twin brother, in his dastardly scheme to take over Christmas. This year, they're understandably expecting some peace and quiet (although their new puppy, who started life as a cow, is still on the lookout).

Bob Claus has seen the error of his ways; but let's face it, he's still an idiot. In an effort to lighten Santa's load, he constructs Super Santa One--a robot Santa Claus that has a few screws loose. Along with a gorilla named Keith and a herd of robotic raindeer, Super Santa One has a new goal in mind...eat ceramics.

Ok, so not quite. And "Robot Santa" has quite a few flaws. There are the frequent changes in rhyme scheme, the pointless division of the storyline, and the occasionally forced rhymes. But there's also heart--heart and wit that borders on wisdom. Koontz is not at his best at prose, that much is obvious, but he's not too bad at it. And with Phil Parks doing some superb illustrations once more, "Robot Santa" is a sequal that, though it doesn't live up to it's predecessor, will be a delight to read for the holidays.

Watch out Emily and Charlotte...Bob's at it again!
Those of us who read and enjoyed Santa's Twin know that sisters, Emily and Charlotte had to save Christmas last year (the events in this story take place a year later) by rescuing the real Santa Claus after his deranged twin brother, Bob, stuffed poor Santa in a sack, dropped him into the basement, then hijacked the sleigh and reindeer. Oh, the awful things crazy Bob left in unsuspecting kids' Christmas stockings! This time around, Bob is repentent and tries to make amends by building a robot Santa that will take some of the burden off his jolly brother, Nicholas. But, of course, the robot malfunctions on its first stop on Christmas Eve, Emily and Charlotte's house, and winds up TAKING instead of giving. It's one calamity after another as Emily and Charlotte try to prevent Robot Santa from destroying their house without awakening their parents. Their dog, Woofer, loyal pooch that he is, tries to help but is sidetracked by a trained gorilla named Keith who is supposed to be piloting the sleigh but instead goes into the girls' kitchen to whip up a tasty treat. Woofer is undone by his stomach, and follows the gorilla. All seems lost! Will Emily and Charlotte manage to get a message to Santa before Robot Santa turns their house into a disaster area? This was a funny follow-up to Santa's Twin. I wonder what's going to happen to the put-upon sisters next year. Hopefully Bob will get some therapy. After all, it isn't easy being the brother of someone as perfect as Santa Claus. I loved the illustrations as much as I did the hilarious story itself. Especially the drawing of Woofer floating through the air after a fall from the roof. The expression on his face is priceless! LOL!