by 
Ellibot and Aunt Maple
written by Sharon CassanoLochman and illustrated by Lucy Belle.
(Children’s Fiction, Picture book, Family)
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“Elliot has a very creative imagination as he creates a Robot clone, Ellibot, of himself to spend time with his Aunt Maple. Elliot is afraid that if Aunt Maple comes over to babysit him, she will make him do all sorts of boring formal activities like having a proper dinner, adult conversation, watch Aunt Maple’s shows, and live up to all of her social expectations. After sending Ellibot down the stairs to keep Aunt Maple busy, he starts to play in his room and becomes bored quickly. He sneaks downstairs to discover Aunt Maple and Ellibot are having great fun, not what he expected! What will Elliot do? How will Aunt Maple Respond? In the end, Elliot learns an important lesson. This is an adorable and creative story that explores the imagination of many young children. What child doesn’t love making things out of their toys and scraps around the house? Children love robots and will thoroughly enjoy and relate to this book. The sensory description will challenge and entertain children of many ages. The delightful illustrations of Elliot and Ellibot go hand and hand with this light-hearted, fun-loving children’s book.” A review by Jennifer Benton, 5th Grade teacher at The Children’s School of Rochester, # 15.
“He tinkered. He erected. He snapped and he popped. The building blocks assembled.” Elliot had a dilemma. Aunt Maple had arrived with babysitting intentions. There would be–social expectations! Idle chatter. A long, drawn-out dinner. Everything on the television except Elliot’s favorite channel. Elliot brainstormed. From the depths of the toy box, he collected everything he needed. He tinkered and erected. Elliot sent his invention on a mission to keep Aunt Maple busy. But Elliot soon discovers that a day to himself is not what he expected.
“There’s a lot to love in this little book. Ellibot and Aunt Maple introduces new words to the young reader in the context of the story. With just a little help, a child will be reading and understanding big words such as dilemma, intentions, expectations, idle, chatter, brainstormed, assembled, invention, uninterrupted, skyscrapers, teetered, sprawled, imposter, and embarrassed. The illustrations are adorable and colorful, and Aunt Maple is pictured as cute and fun. And best of all, it turns out that Elliot is an inventor whose creation really comes to life! After reading this story with you a few times, your own young reader will be able to read and understand many new big words that are fun to know and say. Your child may even be inspired to dream up their own invention to share with you! -review by Ernestine B. Colombo, author of Returning Souls”In this touching and inventive story, Elliot does what any self-respecting boy would do when he sees Aunt Maple coming up the sidewalk to babysit. He dives into his toy box, pulls out odds and ends, and builds another boy to spend the day with Aunt Maple in his place: Ellibot! He throws the robot down the stairs to Aunt Maple without a second look. This lovely story plays upon the fact that children are not always comfortable around older relatives. But Aunt Maple surprises Elliot.” —A review by Ernestine B. Colombo, author of Returning Souls
“This is an adorable and creative story that explores the imagination of many young children. What child doesn’t love making things out of their toys and scraps around the house? Children love robots and will thoroughly enjoy and relate to this book. The sensory description will challenge and entertain children of many ages. The delightful illustrations of Elliot and Ellibot go hand and hand with this light-hearted, fun-loving children’s book.” —A review by Jennifer Benton, 5th Grade teacher at The Children’s School of Rochester, NY # 15.
“This story has the pace and vocabulary of a Disney Junior channel show. I enjoyed the opening in which we are dropped right into the dilemma: Aunt Maple (with her genius name!) has come to babysit. It’s a relatable problem, one that dials up a child’s survival skills, and Elliot shows off his ingenuity by creating a robot version of himself in order to fool Aunt Maple. Once he gets his freedom, we flip the page into a terrific narrative moment, and surprise: he is bored. Story pace carries us toward Aunt Maple and Ellibot, and we see enviable things like ice cream and marbles. Author shows terrific instincts in limiting the enviable items to these two, showing nice restraint and eliminating a sense of overdoing it. It would be out of character for Aunt Maple to go overboard, as we saw earlier. In this, author maintains realism for the character and continuity for the storyline. Emotion swirls as we feel Elliot’s regret, and we get an important and realistic lesson in valuing others, being honest and forgiving. I loved the structure, the emotions, the wonderful little details in the illustrations, and the gentle way in which an error is corrected. Nice movement of plotlines, and such fun word choices (‘he tinkered…he snapped and he popped’). Very good wordplay, sensory elements and bright energy. Well done.” Judge, 28th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards
A Word from the Author
Elliot had a dilemma.
Aunt Maple had arrived with babysitting intentions. There would be—social expectations! Idle chatter. A long, drawn-out dinner. Everything on the television except Elliot’s favorite channel.
Elliot brainstormed.
From the depths of the toy box, he collected everything he needed. He tinkered and erected. Elliot sent his invention on a mission to keep Aunt Maple busy.
But Elliot soon discovers that a day to himself is not what he expected.
(Sharon CassanoLochman, 2022)
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