The Wild Robot

ROZZUM unit 7134, more frequently referred to as Roz, is the sole surviving robot of a shipwreck that lost nearly two hundred other robots. The island Roz is stranded on is devoid of any human life, but there are a wide variety of wild animals who all see Roz as a monster. Eventually, Roz begins to blend in with the animals, and she even learns how to speak like them. Roz soon becomes a part of the island.

The harmony Roz and the animals enjoy does not last very long. A ship spots Roz, and three “RECO” robots are deployed to bring her back to society. The RECO units will use force to get Roz to leave, but she wants to stay with the animals she has grown so attached to. In addition to raising a gosling, surviving winter, and almost becoming an animal, Roz now has to survive an encounter with her own kind.

The Wild Robot is, at first glance, a seemingly lighthearted book about a robot learning to live alongside animals. Even though Roz has many human qualities, she is not entirely relatable due to her robotic nature. However, readers will relate to Roz being in a new environment and not knowing what to do.  Like many people, Roz must adapt and overcome obstacles. Through her struggles, Roz receives help from the animals on the island and learns the value of friendship. They endure numerous hardships together, including death and violence between animals. Death is presented in the book, but the characters die in relatively tame ways and learn to cope with the loss of their friends and even parents in a healthy way.

Even though the story focus on a robot, it provides themes that can easily be related to the real world. The Wild Robot explores the difficulties of integrating into a new setting, as well as an adopted family between a robot and a gosling. Roz and the animals have to trust each other when outsiders threaten their home, and they become closer as a result. The Wild Robot creates an environment of diverse characters that cooperate for a common good.

The Wild Robot tells its story through short chapters that describe events at a rapid pace. With short sentences, chapters, and simple vocabulary, the book is very easy to read. The pictures in the book are sprinkled throughout the chapters, and they are drawn in a cute comic style depicting the events that Roz and the animals experience.

Peter Brown has created a story of an outsider overcoming prejudice, and he has done so in both a tranquil and thrilling way. The Wild Robot introduces characters who are not humans but think and act like humans. Although the story isn’t full of excitement, Brown keeps the reader’s attention through beautiful descriptions of the island, diverse characters, and a unique plot, ultimately creating a powerful story. Instead of having a happy ending, the conclusion is open-ended which allows the reader to come to their own conclusions as to what Roz will do. Roz’s next adventure continues in the second book in the series, The Wild Robot Escapes.

Sexual Content

• None

Violence

• There is no violence between humans, but there are multiple instances of violence occurring with robots described in a human way. For example, during a shipwreck, “Robot limbs and torsos were flung onto ledges. A robot head splashed into a tide pool. A robot foot skittered into the waves.”
• The protagonist of the story observes “vultures hunched over carcasses.”
• A fox recounts his attack of a porcupine, “I didn’t think that porcupine could see me in the bushes, but when I went for his throat, suddenly there were quills in my face.”
• The main character falls into a goose nest, leaving “two dead geese and four smashed eggs among the carnage.”
• Again, the main character is a robot with human attributes but still faces violence. Two bears “slashed at Roz’s body” at one point.
• In the aftermath of a harsh winter, Roz finds “A frozen mouse. A frozen bird. A frozen deer,” as well as several other animals that have frozen to death.
• After the snow from the aforementioned winter melts away, the frozen creatures become visible, and “their corpses were slowly revealed.”
• A farmer with a rifle shoots a goose, described from the animals’ perspective as “a bright beam of light [shooting] out from the rifle, and Longneck slumped to the floor.”
• A goose is “plucked by her foot and flung to the ground” by a robot.
• A rifle is pulled apart, and a “blinding explosion” results in “Roz’s arms and legs… completely blown off.”
• Geese surround a rifle and pick it up, then use it to shoot a robot, creating “a beam of light” that left the robot’s chest “glowing brilliant orange… melting and oozing down his front.”
• An opossum “rolled onto her back, stuck out her tongue, and died,” although it was only faking its death.

Drugs and Alcohol

• None

Language

• There are numerous instances of animals defecating, such as a robin “splatter[ing] her droppings across the robot’s face.”
• Roz is called a “monster” and a “creature” by the animals multiple times.
• Mr. Beaver is called “rude and stubborn.”

Supernatural

• None

Spiritual Content

• None

by Dylan Chilcoat