After being repaired, Roz is sent to Hilltop Farm, which is unlike the remote island that Roz considers home. Roz still speaks the language of the animals and is able to make new friends on the farm. She talks to the cows and the farmer’s children and works to help keep the farm in check as wolves and natural disasters assault the small homestead.
Even though Mr. Shareef and his children consider Roz part of the family, Roz still misses home. Eventually, Roz begins to yearn for the friends and family she left behind. Flocks of geese begin migrating and stopping on the farm, reminding her of her son Brightbill. Roz can’t escape due to a tracker installed in her body, but she works with the farmer’s children to research the tracker and remove it.
After Roz escapes for the second time, recovery robots quickly capture her and bring her to her creator. She is destroyed to appease the public, but Roz’s creator gives her a new body with more features than she had before. They travel to the island Roz came from and reunite her with her old friends and Brightbill. Throughout Roz’s journey, she wonders why she isn’t like other robots. Roz questions, “Is being different the same as being defective?”
Like the previous book in the series, The Wild Robot Escapes is a story of a robot trying to fit in with a new crowd. Roz encounters a number of friendly characters while she tries to get back to the home she knows, which shows that we’re never completely on our own. With the help of friends, Roz is able to overcome many obstacles.
Roz’s destruction, reconstruction, and return to her island also show the darker sides of society. Even though she eventually returns to her family, she has to fake her own death to please the world that thinks she is a rogue robot. The Wild Robot Escapes teaches the importance of friends and family, while also considering the realities of death and society. It’s a heartwarming book with unnervingly realistic undertones about judgment and fear.
The story refers to characters and events from the first book in the series, so readers should read The Wild Robot first. Many readers will be able to relate to Roz, who is a hard-working and compassionate robot who questions her purpose in life. The Wild Robot Escapes is an intriguing, illustrated story that is both entertaining and educational.
Sexual Content
- None
Violence
- Roz recounts the time from the first book when she, “tumbled off a cliff . . . killed two geese and smashed four of their eggs.”
- Roz finds the carcass of, “a dear [that] had recently been killed and eaten.”
- Mr. Shareef, “hand[s] Roz a rifle.” Roz uses it to intimidate wolves, but she doesn’t fire it.
- Wolves “slash her [Roz’s] chest,” and Annabelle then “land[s] a hard kick” on the wolves.
- Mr. Shareef says, “sometimes farmers have to kill animals.” Mr. Shareef tells Roz, “I order you to kill those wolves.”
- During a storm, a tool “hit the back of her [Roz’s] head.”
- A wolf named Shadow says, “You can eat all the animals you like. . . after we kill the robot.”
- During a hailstorm, “a stone hit Brightbill’s shoulder, and he fell to the ground.”
- While hunters are looking for prey, “a gunshot echoed throughout the mountains.”
- A ram “smashed right into the robot.”
- When Roz is melted down, “a blazing beam of light filled the picture, and the robot parts turned orange.”
Drugs and Alcohol
- None
Language
- Roz, “slipped on cow dung.”
- Similar to the first book, many animals mistake Roz for a “monster” or “creature” before they get to know her.
- Annabelle calls a group of wolves “brutes.”
Supernatural
- None
Spiritual Content
- A character says a prayer before they eat. “Thank you, God, for this yummy food.”
- Shadow and Barb say that Roz was, “towering above them, looking like a demon.”
by Dylan Chilcoat
