The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown is the sequel to The Wild Robot, a middle school fictional novel for fourth or fifth graders.
After surviving and thriving on a wild island and making friends with the animal inhabitants, Roz the robot was taken by force from the only home she has ever known and wakes up in a robot factory. She is examined for fitness and shipped out to a farm, where she is supposed to work and care for a widower and his two kids.
But Roz isn’t a normal robot. She wants nothing more than to get back to her island and her son, a goose named Brightbill. Can Roz find her way home without getting caught and without hurting those she loves?
I really enjoyed the first book in this duology and the second didn’t disappoint. In this one we picked up right where we left off and we found out what happened to Roz after she was taken from the island.
One of the things I liked most about these books is that Roz doesn’t just go on physical journeys, she also is on a journey of self discovery. She becomes more and more self aware as the story progresses and she becomes more human, almost to the point that you forget she is a robot.
These books are also very realistic. The author doesn’t shy away from hard themes like pain and death. But he approaches them in a very accessible way for this audience. Even though Roz is a robot, you can see yourself in her shoes. Our main characters may be animals and robots but you can still learn something from each of them.
I did find this one a little slower paced then the first one. I also found myself wishing that Roz made more of an impact on society but I guess realistically it is the small steps that matter.
This will be a much requested sequel for those who have already read The Wild Robot and it is definitely one I would recommend to my 4th and 5th graders. This one gets 3.5 high stars from me.
That’s all for now!
-M-