Lynn Johnston’s new books
February 05th, 2024
Lynn Johnston (at right), famous for her comic strip For Better or For Worse, which was published in more than 2,000 newspapers in 23 countries, has recently begun writing books.
During her retirement in North Vancouver, Johnston started creating surface designs and painting humourous pictures. It gave her the idea to tell whimsical stories with robots. And thus, the colourful Alottabotz kidlit series was born.
The first book of the series, Alottaboz: The Botshop (Self Published $14.95) follows a little robot, Timbot who leaves his home in Tinkertown and moves to the city, Cyberland, with his parents to be with Grandpabot, who recently lost his wife, Grandmabot. Soon, Timbot feels lonely in the new city and longs for friends. Grandpabot sees the problem and takes Timbot to his workshop where he builds Timbot a robot dog, brightening Timbot’s days. Seeing this, the kids in the neighbourhood start to hang out with Timbot as they have never seen a dog before. Suddenly, Timbot has friends of all kinds, and a dogbot best friend!
The second book, Alottabotz: Marvellous Things (Self Published $14.95) picks up where the first book ends. Timbot is now a happy robot with his very own dogbot. Dogbot fills his life with adventure, making all the other robot kids in the neighbourhood want pets. So, Grandpabot goes on a mission to build robot pets of every kind, shape and size. As Johnston describes the scene: “His botshop was busy and the neighbours helped too. Tim’s mom made refreshments for all on the crew. And when they were finished, his mother opined, ‘There are catbots and dogbots of every design.’”
In the third book in the series, Alottabotz: A Dog With No Name (Self Published $14.95), Timbot’s dogbot goes for a walk and gets lost in a pond. Timbot doesn’t know what to do. Everyone tells him to call his name. But, little did they know that Timbot hasn’t given his dog a name. Although dogbot has a marvellous time exploring the underwater world within the pond, he gets stuck in an outcrop of underwater rocks and can’t move. He is in danger, as the longer he is underwater, the faster he will corrode. Will Timbot and Grandpabot rescue him in time?
Alottaboz: The Botshop 9781739063207
Alottabotz: Marvellous Things 9781739063214
Alottabotz: A Dog With No Name 9781739063221
Where can we purchase these Alottabotz books by Lynn Johnson?