K-Gr 3--Rex uses boldly colored robots with varying facial expressions (from happy to sad to flummoxed) to explain to children the difference between want and need. Does a robot actually need "fancy sunglasses" or "golden ukuleles?" What about batteries, arms, legs, and oil? Contrasting robots on each page use humor and easy-to-understand language to explain trading objects that are needed to survive versus those that are wanted to look "awesome." As the story progresses, the robots also show what happens when you "don't balance your wants and needs" correctly--chaos and missing body parts! Rex's book is a unique and comic take on a relatable lesson for primary students and would make excellent supplemental material for elementary instructors looking to teach or reinforce the difference of necessity and convenience, or, in the vernacular here, wants and needs. VERDICT The most valuable lesson in this entertaining picture book is about the importance of making good choices and helping others, a moral delivered painlessly and with loads of good humor.--Kerra Mazzariello

To demonstrate the difference between true, necessary-for-survival "needs" and optional "wants", Rex sends a fresh cast of animated, loudly hued robots cavorting across the spreads of this follow-up to Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots (2020). While it's partly for fun, it also functions to warn against the hazards of trading off one tool (cool boots, a remote-control platypus) for another (legs, batteries), and to introduce the idea of negotiating fair bargains or exchanges. Though logic stumbles over language in a contention that, to find out what happens next, readers will "want" to turn the page (it would be equally accurate here to call that a "need"), Rex does neatly set out the distinction at the end: "These robots are happy to HAVE the things they NEED so they can ENJOY the things they WANT." Food for thought--and not just for the kids.

A tangible way to help younger kids look at an economic principle. An unseen narrator defines needsas "something you cannot survive without." Robots need "batteries for power. Arms to do work. Legs to move. Oil so they run smoothly." Smiling, appealing, anthropomorphized automatons begin to understand the difference between wants and needs as they think about their desires: "fancy sunglasses, jelly-bean tacos, unicorn hats, and golden ukuleles." Then the concept of trading comes into play. How can one robot acquire a coveted object owned by another? The red robot gives away their oil for a shirt, barters their arms and legs for boots and a remote-controlled platypus, and exchanges their battery for a cake. Eventually, the red robot ends up slumped over the cake, smoke emanating from their body ("What a mess! See what happens when you don't balance your wants and needs?"). Rex did an admirable job explaining important concepts in a fun way with Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots (2020), but he stumbles here by referring to arms and legs as needs. Since the robots are human stand-ins, the book inadvertently implies that those with limb differences are living lesser lives. The author makes his point, but using needs other than limbs--a dry environment, programming--might have been just as effective and more empathetic. (This book was reviewed digitally.) An unintended ableist viewpoint mars a playful examination of the difference between needs and desires. (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.