Arno The Garbo
Gary Crew & Craig Smith

Lothian Books  2001

32p hbk $24.95

ISBN: 0-7344-0174-4

Arno’s parents owned a junk yard.  The children at school used to pick on Arno because he was smelly and he did not do well at school.  Arno was, however, a good inventor and made many inventions from the scrap in the junk yard.  He made a mechanical boy but one without a heart so it could not get hurt.  The mechanical boy looked like him but it was perfect in everyway and good at everything.

All the kids at school thought the mechanical boy was Arno, and was cool.  The mechanical boy did everything right, far better than Arno and even better than some of the teachers.

Eventually people thought the mechanical boy was too perfect and wanted the old Arno back.  Arno revealed that the mechanical boy was not him but only an invention.  When Arno went back to school as himself everyone thought Arno was so cool and clever because of his great inventions.  They appreciated him for who he was.

This book is good for a quick read, for primary school students. I found the book easy to read with a story line that is good and one that has a message – that is, it is best to be yourself.  Sometimes people can be mean to people but when they realize what you are good at and appreciate you for who you are, they don’t want you to be someone that you are not.  Also, the story tells you that if you are perfect in every way people get sick of you and think you are up yourself.

The illustrations were great and they matched the storyline perfectly.  They were colourful, creative and looked interesting because they look in-between being realistic and a cartoon.

My personal response is that I really enjoyed reading it and it is a book that you could read over and over again.  I recommend that if you find books quite hard to read, then this would be a good book for you.

Melissa, aged 11, Canberra, ACT