Winter of the Robots - by Kurtis Scaletta

Robots are cool, right?  You know, R2D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars were pretty awesome.  But what happens when robots begin to think on their own?

Set in North Minneapolis, this is the story of  Jim, a middle-school kid who joins his best friend in their science project to make a small robot that can battle other robots in a competition.  As Jim learns how to write code to program a robot's actions, he has no idea how useful those skills are going to become.  While Jim and his friends encounter and work through normal teen issues like strained friendships, dating, problematic siblings, and dealing with concerned parents, something sinister is taking place at the junk yard down the road.  As you may have guessed it is up to Jim and his friends to save the day.

Full of robotics talk, this is a must-read for any future programmers or battle-bot competitors.  It's also a plain old good story with some good twists and turns.