Infinitely charming and equally heartbreaking, Peter Brown’s all-ages sci-fi drama sequel The Wild Robot Escapes is a melancholic affair. The story centres on the fallout of the previous book, The Wild Robot, with titular heroine robot Roz brought to work on a farm far away from the island she called home. She adjusts to her new life, surreptitiously plotting an escape back to her island.
Brown’s succinct narrative structure is snappy enough to sustain a younger reader’s interest, with some chapters lasting little longer than a page or two. However, it’s the story that’s in danger of putting off that younger reader. The Wild Robot Escapes tells a gorgeous story of adventure, finding home and family, but its melancholic tone rarely lets up. From the very beginning, the book paints a quietly sad picture for Roz, opening with her being transported to her new home and eventually pouring her story out to the farm’s animals, whose language she’s able to master. A sense of desperation hangs over the book’s early pages, as Roz yearns to leave her new home behind but fails to have a plan to do so.
The innocence of Roz’s gentle personality is countered by the story’s grim tone, bolstered further by her growing relationship with the two children living on the farm, Jad and Jaya. Roz’s calm persona lends the grimness a soothing quality, as she is forced into calamitous situation after calamitous situation. Whether it’s keeping her true self hidden from her new owners or getting violently caught in a tornado, your heart goes out to the robot trying her hardest to find a way home. An added pinch of warmth is delivered whenever Roz is able to decode any of the surrounding animals’ language and have conversations with them. Their shared, initially perplexed attitude at the idea that a robot is able to communicate with them delivers some welcome humour in all the right places.
For all its sadness, The Wild Robot Escapes packs in plenty of heart. It’s a deceptively simple story, one whose goal is mapped out as early as possible, ensuring a hook-laden narrative from beginning to end. Its darkness may be persevering, but you find yourself immersed in Roz’s mentality, her simple way of thinking and the stripped down storytelling complementing each other. Roz’s journey is fraught with danger at every turn, but it’s well worth every turn of the page. Young lovers of adventure will find much to enjoy about The Wild Robot Escapes, even if it gets bogged down in its own morose nature at times.
THE WILD ROBOT ESCAPES / AUTHOR: PETER BROWN / PUBLISHER: LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY / RELEASE DATE: 15TH OCTOBER
