Another simple story about an entrepreneurial French mouse, Anatole, this book is not! Titus and Galdone shift perspective to comment on the rise of technology in the workplace through the introduction of an untoward robot who attempts to take over Anatole’s job at the Duvale cheese factory. The robot in question is not actually bad at its job of tasting cheese (a surprising turn, but it would have been too simple a motif to have the robot just be incompetent at the job), but their prevailing theme is that even if machinery can technically replace human (or mouse) workers the artistry required for many of these jobs cannot be replicated. Not really a surprising motif coming from the French, who very much value artistic inclinations in the workplace, but one that is important nonetheless! ( )

Blue cloth over hardcover with black mouse peddling on bicycle on lower right corner of front cover. Corners of book are worn. Inside cover page has a green X and stamp from the school library. Written on inside title page in small writing is 3742. No dust cover. Binding intact. Stain on back inside cover.

In this book in the series, M'sieu Duval gets sick and allows his cousin, LaRue the inventor, to take over his cheese factory. LaRue invents a cheese tasting robot called Cheezak (!) and has him take over Anatole's cheese-tasting duties. Cheezak runs the factory workers ragged with his specific demands for 99 flakes of pepper in the cheese and 22 1/2 drops of vinegar, etc. Finally the factory workers accidentaly break Cheezak and he goes crazy; Anatole, of course, saves everyone and gets his job back.

Cheese-tasting robot, lol. ( )