The Wild Robot Protects

This is the third adventure for Roz, the wild robot. In her first outing, readers watched as, washed up on a remote island, she made her home with the animals there, adopting a gosling in the process. The Wild Robot Escapes saw her back in ‘civilisation’, working on a farm and finding more in common with the livestock than the human owners, before eventually finding her way home. Her friends on the island and in the seas around it are threatened in this new story when a toxic tide flows towards them through the ocean, poisoning the water and killing any vegetation it touches. Roz can organise the animals so that food and water are shared but as the situation becomes more perilous, she sets out to discover the source of the tide and find a way to stop it. Fortunately, the improvements to her metal body made in the last book, mean that she is waterproof, and able to swim through the ocean and sometimes stride across its floor.  She meets all sorts of fish and seabirds, winning friends as is her way, and eventually arriving at the source of the toxic tide, which turns out to be manmade. Directed by Roz and Gurry, the Ancient Shark who knows so much, the wild creatures can work together to save our world. The descriptions of Roz’ underwater adventures are thrilling and Peter Brown’s striking illustrations are a delight, adding warmth and humour. No matter how dark things get or seem, Roz is an indestructible figure of hope and kindness. Superb robot adventures, these stories have so much to say about the world and how best to live in it.

Read our new Q&A interview with Peter Brown.