What? It's About a Bot? The Twelve Bots of Christmas by Nathan Hale

It had to happen! "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" has been spoofed about as many ways as it can be stretched and "Jingle Bells" has been jangled by every celeb, not to mention mewing cats and barking dogs. So why should "The Twelve Days of Christmas" be spared the parry of the parodist?

Nathan Hale's new The Twelve Bots of Christmas (Walker and Company, 2010) features a takeover of the traditional English folk song by a bunch of bots and their automated mates--a Cartridge in a Gear Tree, Two Turbo-Doves, and Three Wrench Hens--for starters, along with a zippy refrain:

ON THE FIFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS, ROBO-SANTA GAVE TO ME

FIVE BOT-O-RIES...."

And tons of batteries will be in order to power the rest of these robots, which include "six Geese-o-Matics" and "nine Droids a-dancing" on the way to the twelfth day. Hale's clever illustrations outshine his text, with lots of inside jokes for the gearhead cognoscenti concealed in the bright and shiny digital art. It's not a song for the traditionalist, of course, but the those motorheadz and bot boyz out there, it's a funny and punny way to count down to Christmas.