The Wild Robot: Book Review (rewrite)

 

Attention: This is a rewrite of my second blog post, a book review of The Wild Robot, because I deleted the original post by accident and Blogger doesn’t allow us to bring back deleted drafts for whatever reason.

This is a book review of The Wild Robot so it will contain spoilers.

It has been almost a month since I have published my First Look for Peter Brown’s 2016 novel The Wild Robot, delving on why exactly Brown decided to write the book. To jog your memory, The Wild Robot is a book about a manufactured robot who accidentally crashes in the midst of an island in the middle of the ocean, stranded amongst tall trees, dangerous storms, and numerous forms of wildlife. The robot is built and programmed to follow orders, but alone in the wilderness surrounded by unfamiliar creatures that speak in incognizable languages, she has to rely on what she sees and uses her computer brain to learn how to survive and live.

It has been about four weeks since I published that, and since then I have finished reading the book. As Roz, the Wild Robot who is accidentally set on her own on the island, goes day after day on her own, she encounters a large thunderstorm and a brutal bear attack. After surviving both of these and learning more of how she must adapt to the wilderness, she camouflages herself with mud and flowers and blends in, observing all of the animals’ behavior. After much time of this observation while she remains still, she eventually learns the language of the animals. Once Roz finally introduces herself to the animals, they all ran from her and treated her like a monster.

Another storm hits and Roz accidentally causes the death of an entire family of geese, all except for one egg. She takes the egg and once it hatches, the baby gosling sees Roz as its mother, so the emotionless robot must take care of the gosling as if it is her own son. She cares for the gosling, giving it food and shelter and teaches it to fly and swim even though she cannot. These kind acts cause the animals to be more welcome to Roz, beginning to treat her more like their own. During an especially cold winter, Roz helps the entire island and builds wooden domes with campfires, so the surviving animals can stay warm. Even when she’s finally being treated with respect by the other animals, she has to confront her origins before crashing on the island.

I loved reading The Wild Robot. We can see how much Roz evolves throughout the story: when she emerges into the wilderness, she is mechanical and emotionless, being a robot, and heavily stands out from all the vivid greenery and lively animals. Once Roz ends up with a gosling that is her responsibility to take care of, though, she begins to harbor feelings of love and kindness as she cares for her son. Even when her son breaks down when he finds out Roz is not his real birth mother, Roz still tries to cheer him up. She feels a bit sad when her gosling momentarily leaves the island to migrate during the frigid winter, but her kindness still shines when she saves all kinds of frozen animals buried in the snow and thaws them out with campfires in her homemade domes. Just how Roz helps all kinds of animals, The Wild Robot is a book for all kinds of readers, whether you’re interested in robots, animals, nature, or just another heartwarming and emotionally touching story.

Philip Chen

(If you end up reading The Wild Robot and liking it, I encourage you to check out the newly released film adaptation of the book. It keeps all of the emotion and changes some things around to keep things fresh.)