Restart: Dot by Randi Zuckerberg

DOT KNOWS A LOT.

SHE KNOWS HOW TO TAP...

TO TWEET...

TO TAG.

A smiling young lass, dressed appropriately in a pink polka-dotted dress, knows how to manipulate her digital data. After all, she is the creation of Randi Zuckerberg. (Yes, those Zuckerbergs.) She flits from tablet to 'phone to laptop. She swipes and Scypes, shares and surfs, texts and posts, fingers flying, until one day, Dot clicks and crashes.

Mom declares it's time to alt, control, and delete, to shut down and restart. She re-boots Dot out the door and into the world outside for a refresh and reset.

With her little shaggy dog (real, not robotic), Dot (last name Com?) communicates with nature the natural way, logging in by sitting on a log, chatting and sharing a treat with the pooch, and takes in her own personal screen shot, in Randi Zuckerberg's Dot.(Harper, 2013).

Younger kids will just enjoy Joe Berger's appealing little Dot having fun in the sun, but slightly older kids will recognize the obvious message that sometimes it's necessary to put down the device and interface with the non-digital world for yourself. Illustrator Berger cleverly utilizes a primarily pink palette for Dot's digital world, adding greens and yellows while she's doing her redirecting in the great outdoors. When kids need a digital redo, to put down the devices and recycle on the bicycle, drive home that theme by pairing this one with Ann Droyd's spoof of the digitally demented, Goodnight iPad: a Parody for the next generation.. (Read my review here.)