The Wild Robot Escapes
Ratings16
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings16
Average rating4.2
The enchanting illustrated sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling THE WILD ROBOT, by award-winning author-illustrator Peter Brown Roz is no ordinary robot. After being washed up on the shore of a remote and wild island, she learned to adapt and make it her home, befriend its animal inhabitants and even adopt a small orphaned gosling, Brightbill. But a new life is now beginning for Roz - she has been taken away, far away from her island, back to civilisation. Where she must pretend that she is a robot like any other - there to follow orders and to carry out tasks on the farm where she now works. She knows she must never let anyone find out who she really is. And more than anything, she must find a way to escape, back to the island and her beloved Brightbill - a journey that will be fraught with danger and drama, and some very unexpected surprises ... Praise for The Wild Robot 'An Iron Man style fable for our age' - Piers Torday, award-winning author of The Last Wild 'A modern-day classic in the making' - Booktrust [Peter Brown's THE WILD ROBOT was a #1 New York Times bestseller w/c 11th June 2023]
Featured Series
3 primary booksThe Wild Robot is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2016 with contributions by Peter Brown.
Reviews with the most likes.
Sweet and satisfying conclusion with some action and suspense. Highly recommend this duo to upper elementary or as a read aloud to kids 8+. Enjoyed both audio versions but would like to see his drawings, I'm sure they're additive.
“Maybe I am defective, maybe everything I have experienced is the result of a glitch. But if so, what a beautiful glitch!”
❤️❤️❤️ I mean. Come on! Middle grade literature is where it's at, folks. And I'll say for the hundredth time, if you aren't reading it, you are missing out!!!
Peter Brown expands the series, in my opinion, by making a much more contemplative and introspective addition where he seemingly attempts to answer the question "what is life?" There is action, joy, grief, suspense, and a satisfying conclusion, all the traits of a great story. My kid loved it.
Summary: Roz becomes a farm robot and wants to find her son and make her way home to the island.
At the end of the first book of the series, The Wild Robot, Roz had been damaged trying to protect her adopted son (a wild goose) and her friends (the other animals on the island where she lives) from the robots that had been sent to retrieve her. Those robots were Those robots were all destroyed, but Roz had no choice but to turn herself in so that she could be repaired.
Roz was refurbished but she maintained her memories and personality. After refurbishment, she was sold to a disabled farmer. As Roz works the farm, she becomes friends with the farm animals and the two children on the farm.
She is good at farming. She understands how to work with the animals and the other farm machines. She can see that there is real value in the work, not just because the work is enjoyable, but because the work she does serves the family and Roz likes the family.
It is not a surprise, based on the name of the book, but she grapples with whether she should escape (the farm does run better with her), but she misses her son. It is a spoiler to say she does decide to escape, but that seemed clear from the beginning, and from the title and about half of the book is the story of her escape and trying to find her way back to the island.
I wrote a long post about the importance of depth to a story. Children's books and young adult books are improved by writing depth into the story. Yes kids will only get the surface the first time they read them. But kids generally like to revisit stories. And I do think these are short enough books and simple enough reading level that many kids will revisit them. I don't think there is as much depth to this story as KB Hoyle's writing, but there are good philosophical questions embedded in the story. Ideas of vocation and family and what we were meant to become are natural questions for a learning robot.
There is a twist toward the end of the book that I look forward to understanding more about when I read the third book. My son read the first book on his own last year when he was in third grade. He enjoyed the Wild Robot but did not keep reading the series. I picked these first two up on sale because of the movie, but I do think they are worth reading. I tend to like young adult books more than middle grade books because I like more complex stories. But this series has had good characters and an engaging enough story that I have read them on my own without kids and enjoyed them.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/the-wild-robot-escapes/
