Books on building "robots" for teen aged or teen aged acting adults

I am thinking about a last minute Christmas gift of a book on building small robots/machines. I read an article some time back about a book describing how to use salvaged parts to build stuff like small "insect" robots with old solar cells , capacitors & gears that flop about in the sun.

They would need to be from a beginner level I guess in describing recognizing capacitors, relays, diodes ect. and I would love any comments from folks who have seen the books applied. Not really looking for a $79 kit where you hook several wires together from parts included but if any of those are worthwhile that would be great to know.

A subscription to Make Magazine or a kit from the Maker Shed should do any enterprising child (or adult maker) nicely. I haven't ordered any of the kits, but based on the magazine, I can't imagine them not being a really fun learning experience.

http://makezine.com/

thanks for the link Aul, for some reason the site will not load now but I will try later