Little Wooden Robot & the Log Princess

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This sweet fairy tale is beautifully crafted with endearing, detailed art and expertly told with not a word out of place and just the right dash of wit. You will want to return to this particular adventure with the Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess again and again while sly references to side adventures (The Magic Pudding! The Haunted Well!) will set your imagination to work. Recommended By Sarah R., Powells.com

In acclaimed graphic novelist Tom Gauld's first picture book for children, a little wooden robot embarks on a quest to find his missing sister — making for a memorable contemporary bedtime story.

For years, the king and queen tried desperately to have a baby. Their wish was twice granted when an engineer and a witch gave them a little wooden robot and an enchanted log princess. There's just one catch, every night when the log princess sleeps, she transforms back into an ordinary log. She can only be woken with the magic words Awake, little log, awake.

The two are inseparable until one day when the sleeping log princess is accidentally carted off to parts unknown. Now it's up to her devoted brother to find her and return her safely to the kingdom. They need to take turns to get each other home, and on the way, they face a host of adventures involving the Queen of Mushrooms, a magic pudding, a baby in a rosebush, and an old lady in a bottle.

This is acclaimed graphic novelist Tom Gauld's first picture book for children, inspired by a bedtime story he made up for his daughters. In his words, I was trying to make a book inspired by three different sets of books: The books that I remember enjoying as a child, the books that I watched my daughters enjoying, and the books I enjoy now as an adult. I wanted the book to have its own quirky feeling but also to function like a classic bedtime story.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

“I didn't know the world needed another fairy tale until I read this funny, beautiful, perfect book.” Carson Ellis

“A marvelous journey....Gauld's fairy tale feels both timeless and completely new; utterly fresh, yet like a story heard long ago and finally found again. Enchanting.” Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

“This invented fairy tale by cartoonist Gauld (Mooncop, for adults) offers whimsy, imaginative power, and narrative poise.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“What an astonishingly sweet book. I worried about the log princess, loved all the adventures we never saw, and cheered the family of beetles.” Neil Gaiman

“A wooden masterpiece.” Lemony Snicket

“Tom Gauld has created a masterful classic fairytale of a picture book that hits in all the right ways. In his inimitable style, he has squeezed royalty, robots, witches, inventors, trolls, sea-captains, forests, ghosts, and... beetles (!) into a beautiful, odd, adventurous and satisfying story. All wrapped up, of course, with the bow of sibling love.” Oliver Jeffers

“Tom Gauld is one of the best storytellers working and everything he does so well is here — it is beautiful, immersive, expertly told, and breathes completely on its own. I am jealous of it.” Jon Klassen

A New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Book of the Year

A little wooden robot embarks on a quest to find his missing sister-- making for a memorable contemporary bedtime story in acclaimed graphic novelist Tom Gauld's first picture book for children.

For years, the king and queen tried desperately to have a baby. Their wish was twice granted when an engineer and a witch gave them a little wooden robot and an enchanted log princess. There's just one catch, every night when the log princess sleeps, she transforms back into an ordinary log. She can only be woken with the magic words Awake, little log, awake.

The two are inseparable until one day when the sleeping log princess is accidentally carted off to parts unknown. Now it's up to her devoted brother to find her and return her safely to the kingdom. They need to take turns to get each other home, and on the way, they face a host of adventures involving the Queen of Mushrooms, a magic pudding, a baby in a rosebush, and an old lady in a bottle.

This is acclaimed graphic novelist Tom Gauld's first picture book for children, inspired by a bedtime story he made up for his daughters. In his words, I was trying to make a book inspired by three different sets of books: The books that I remember enjoying as a child, the books that I watched my daughters enjoying, and the books I enjoy now as an adult. I wanted the book to have its own quirky feeling but also to function like a classic bedtime story.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
An Evanston Public Library Great Books for Kids pick

Tom Gauld is a cartoonist and illustrator. He won an Eisner Award for his book Baking with Kafka and has weekly comic strips in The Guardian and New Scientist. His comics have been published in The New York Times and The Believer. In addition to his graphic novels Goliath and Mooncop, he has many distinctive New Yorker covers. Gauld lives and works in London.