One book that made a big impression on me as a kid was "Run, Robot, Run" by French astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Petit. It was an illustrated introduction to basic ideas of robotics. I think I may have gotten it at the now (sadly defunct) Boston Computer Museum. I really liked the simplified-but-with-interesting-mechanical-details robots.
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The end panel had a flight of fancy of some neat robot ideas, only one or two were in the main book itself.They remind me of simpler versions of George Beker's robot cartoons (as seen in Creative Computing's 1978 book 101 BASIC Computer Games.)Also, random note. As a kid I remember strongly noticing how the character Sophie's bosom was drawn. Not to sound TOO licentious but the kind of ski slope curve was a little more sophisticated than a kid's simplified drawing model of "boobs are just domes".
