The Wild Robot Escapes: Second Look (get it? because it's the second book)

 

Spoilers for both The Wild Robot and The Wild Robot Escapes. Also I’d recommend you read one of the two blogs I previously wrote for The Wild Robot before reading this one. Thank you!

My name is Philip Chen, and today on the Frog Blog we’re looking at the sequel to the critically acclaimed novel The Wild Robot, a book of which my first two separate blog posts were focused on. Due to having an extra week in our blog writing session I have brought it upon myself to finish The Wild Robot Escapes over Black Friday Eve break, so we’re skipping the “first look” tidbit on this one (which is good because we don’t need two blogs on one book) and going straight into the book review.

The first book centers around Roz, a manufactured robot (she is a ROZZUM robot) who accidentally crashed onto a foreign island in the middle of the sea alone. Upon being shunned by the wild animals who live there, Roz puts on a camouflage made of grass, dirt, and flowers and sits still for quite a while, long enough to overhear all the animals communicating and, using her computer brain, she eventually learns the language of the animals. However, the animals did not fully treat her with respect and friendliness until Roz adopts a poor baby gosling whose family was killed in a stormy accident and she names it Brightbill. Even though Roz is a mechanical robot who cannot feel emotion, she tries her best to care for her son with the help of the wildlife. As Brightbill grows up, he learns to swim and fly, and the animals grow much closer to Roz. Roz truly feels like she belongs amongst the foliage and wild animals and life is great! However, that all changes when Roz’s past catches up to her. The company who created Roz and many other robots sends an aircraft with much larger, stronger robots to bring Roz back to where she came from. To avoid her friends and home from getting destroyed, Roz is forced to comply and leaves the island and the animals, her poor son included, thus ending the first book.

Now onto the second book, finally. Roz is sent to human civilization, is fixed up and cleaned of the bruises she got from the island so she looks identical to a regular, shiny, obedient ROZZUM robot. Roz is sent to a farm and is ordered to help a single father and his two children with the farmwork. She meets a good-sized herd of cows there. Like the animals from the island were at first, the cows were scared of Roz being in their barn. This changed when Roz spoke to them in the language of the animals that she learned from the island, though, and Roz tells the cows all about her previous life on the island. She yearns to be back with her son, amongst animal friends and green forests. So, she tells the cows that she will eventually try to escape the farm and go back to her island where she belongs.

Was this book better than the first one? I’d say no, to be honest. The first book had more emotional heartfelt moments. But this book does have more action and adventures as Roz tries to travel back to her island. Will she reunite with her beloved island and son ever again? And what other obstacles are stopping her from doing so? Find out in the thrilling sequel The Wild Robot Escapes!

I’m also gonna read the threequel, The Wild Robot Protects, next, so see you then!

• Philip Chen