The Wild Robot on the Island

NB: This book, as the author puts it in an afterword, ‘is a simplified version of The Wild Robot,’ first in a trilogy of books and a highly acclaimed animated motion picture. This review won’t discuss the trilogy or the film adaptation of Book 1 but instead deal with The Wild Robot on the Island on its own merits.

Roz the robot is adrift after the ship carrying her loses her crate in a storm. The crate comes to land on a natural Utopia – ‘Everything was just right on the island.’ – and Roz, programmed to find a way of belonging, watches and imitates the animals, and by learning how they communicate, makes friends. Her guardianship of an egg, and the relationship with Brightbill the gosling that hatches from it, form the major thread of the story.

The illustrations are everything the careful reader would want: the ship losing one square on the endpaper, the crate cube attended by gulls coming to the island; these are engaging pieces of artwork. My favourite picture has to be where we see Roz hiding among the seaweed-encrusted rock, where Peter Brown has used the light in a rain storm to incredible effect, and Roz’s eyes shine out from among the weed camouflage. For animal lovers there are some enchanting vignettes, as we move to Roz’s care for Brightbill. The montage of the gosling grown up – ‘Mama, I’m talking…’ ‘Mama, I’m flying!’ is both funny and moving. The seasons change, and Brightbill flies off on migration. Peter Brown makes effective use of colours to show us the changing year, until Brightbill returns and again ‘Everything was right on the island.’

Choosing a proposed readership for this was hard: the illustrations are rich but need some careful exploration; the text sometimes uses vocabulary a younger reader might find challenging – but on reflection this is not in any way badly placed, or even a celebration of the novels: it is lovely, simple telling of a story, with lots of issues around belonging and the beauty of the world to ponder.