The Wild Robot Escapes (The Wild Robot, Book #2)
By: Peter Brown
My Rating: FIVE out of Five Stars
Best for: 10 and under

I wish I had written The Wild Robot.

“What a great idea!”

“Ooo, I loved how that sounds.”

“Why didn’t I think of that?”

“I can’t believe he can say so much in so few words.”

“Not fair. I want this to have been my idea.”

Yep. I’m quoting myself. These thoughts, and many like them, popped in to my head on nearly every page.

I loved it so much I wish I’d written it myself.

Peter Brown is very, very good.

We love The Wild Robot in my family–All three books! I remember reading The Wild Robot for the first time. I read it myself, was blown away, then immediately started over, reading it out loud to my littles. They inhaled it and embraced it, and when we finished we began [im]patiently waiting for The Wild Robot Escapes (Book #2).

We started book 2 together on release day and finished it a few days later. We teared (quietly) and cheered (loudly) at all the right places, and we fell in love with Roz all over again.

Book three was announced unexpectedly over a year before it was published in 2023, and we waited anxiously for its release. It was a new crop of younger kids that I read it to this time, but because of their big brothers and sisters love for Roz, we’ve all read this kind, loving, wild robot’s adventures together more than once.

We started reading The Wild Robot Protects together the day it was released to the world, but they were too slow! So–I read it myself in one night. I couldn’t wait! I wanted to see if the magic still held.

It did.

There I was, all by myself, tearing (quietly) and cheering (also quietly–that would be weird) for a children’s chapter book about a robot with a goose for a son who has taught herself to speak to the animals. I’m still trying to figure out how a story like that can have the same impact on a 5 year old, an 8 year old, teenagers, and their Dad in his 40’s.

All three Wild Robot books are perfect middle grade stories. The short, rapid fire chapters are perfect for reading aloud or for letting a 10-year-old feel like she is reading quickly. The simple sentence structure is flawless and a joy to read. Even the illustrations are beautiful, and whenever we came across one we’d stop reading a just stare at if for a few moments.

I’m telling you, there are few books with this much heart, and even fewer with this much soul, and it’s all because of a robot named Roz.

Really, I can’t recommend The Wild Robot, The Wild Robot Escapes, and The Wild Robot Protects more. They are as close to perfect as I’ve ever read.

One note for parents, The Wild Robot ends on a sad note, and it’s a cliffhanger. You’re going to want to be ready to help your young readers navigate some tender disappointment…AND you’re going to want to have The Wild Robot Escapes on hand immediately after book 1 is finished! Assure them that everything works out in the end!

Now, The Wild Robot movie.

I have a love hate relationship with books and their movies. I love the books, but hate their movies. Yet I still see them because I have a hope that the movie will move me as much as their book. I’ve nearly always been disappointed.

Until now.

The Wild Robot movie is absolutely incredible. It went the route I wish others would take: instead of trying to mimic the book on the big screen–which never works but they do it over and over again–they rewrote the story. They kept the major elements, plot points, and themes, but retold it in a way that translated perfectly to a visual story told in about 100 minutes. The feelings, the cheers, the tears, the love, the connection–it was all there. And it’s BEAUTIFUL! Maybe the most beautiful animated film I’ve ever seen. Everyone loved it. The children, the teens, the dads, the moms, the grandmas, and the grandpas. And the part I was most worried about–the ending. If it ended like the book as a cliffhanger for a sequel I would have been so, so disappointed. But it didn’t. Instead the writers incorporated some of book 2 into the ending of book 1 to give it the perfect ending, with just enough open endness to allow for The Wild Robot Escapes, which I haven’t heard anything about but I sure hope it gets made.

Peter Brown, thank you for creating Roz and giving her so much heart. She’s an inspiration.

Read the books. Then go see the movie.

Happy reading, and happy watching!