The Wild Robot, in my opinion, was a brilliant read; simply-written yet thought-provoking. I was looking forward to reading the sequel. We last saw Roz, damaged after a fight with the robots who came to the island, on her way back to the factory so she can be fixed. She had to leave her animal friends, but her goal was to come back, because the island was where she belonged. The story in the sequel is that she has been fixed, but kept her mind and memories. She is bought by a family to run a farm, but she is planning her escape with the help of her son Brightbill the goose. I should note that if you have only seen the film of The Wild Robot, then some things won’t add up if you read this book, because the ending of the first book was different to the film.

I have to admit that the story wasn’t quite what I expected. The writing style, illustrations and themes matched the first book, however the majority of the story was set on the farm, which was not at all interesting to me. Moreover, the ethics of dairy farming and of humans eating animals were presented in a strangely positive way, at odds with what our future civilisation might be like. The best part of the story is right near the end, when Roz is navigating through urban landscapes and ends up literally meeting her maker. The book cover shows an industrial setting and the blurb misleadingly mentions having to work in a city, so I thought it would be more of an exciting adventure, maybe even talking with the other robots and trying to change their programming, but it’s nothing of the sort. It’s not exactly Asimov. However, it’s a children’s book and perhaps I’m expecting too much. There’s another book, The Wild Robot Protects, but I’m not sure if I’ll read it.

Published by Piccadilly Press, 2018.