The Wild Robot, from which the 2024 animated film of the same name was adapted, is written and illustrated by renowned American author Peter Brown.
Published in 2016, the novel has two sequels, The Wild Robot Escapes (2018) and The Wild Robot Protects (2023).
The middle-grade novel tells the story of the robot ROZZUM unit 7134 or “Roz”, who, upon opening her eyes for the first time, finds herself all alone on a remote island full of wildlife.
Like all humans, she searches for the meaning of her existence and the purpose of her life.
In the process, Roz learns to survive in the wildness by learning from and eventually befriending the island’s animal inhabitants.
She even learns to become a mother, adopting an orphan gosling and raising him to become something great.
The book has its narrator speaking directly to the reader, which is both amusing and endearing: “I should remind you, reader, that Roz had no idea how she had come to be on that island … As far as Roz knew, she was home.”
However, for a long while, the robot remains a threat in the eyes of the animals, who call her a “monster” and tell her to “return to whatever horrible place you’ve come from”.
But from Roz’s perspective, she is indeed from the island and has spent her whole life there.
We see how the robot observes and analyses, then adapts, improvises and improves, her logical programming allowing her to quickly identify and implement various survival strategies and assess their effectiveness, before generating new queries and then establishing new operational parameters by which she can better accommodate existing and unpredictable circumstances. In other words, this is a dream come true for any young and adult readers who ever feel enthralled by the technological mystery that is artificial intelligence.
Even better, here the testing ground is the wilderness, full of constant yet unexpected danger and death, erratic and often violent encounters with the dark sides of nature.
But there are also friendship, resilience, connection, compassion, teamwork, kindness, loyalty, and the best of all, family and love.
In learning to become “wild” – a literary theme increasingly explored in recent years – Roz, who is created for the sole purpose of serving in a domestic capacity, gets a chance to learn how to live.
The black-and-white illustrations present her as a chunky, clunky and often clumsy hulk, yet she is so much more intelligent and engaging – like the humanoid robots in Hayao Miyazaki’s 1986 animated film Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
If you are looking for great books for children – especially to read aloud to and/or with them – The Wild Robot and its sequels are an excellent option.
The author writes with humour and honesty, achieving a fine balance between truth and wonder without patronising those young minds eager for an adventure.
Highly recommended.
