The Wild Robot (The Wild Robot, 1)

Wall-E meets Hatchet in this New York Times bestselling illustrated middle grade novel from Caldecott Honor winner Peter Brown

Can a robot survive in the wilderness?

When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is all alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is--but she knows she needs to survive. After battling a violent storm and escaping a vicious bear attack, she realizes that her only hope for survival is to adapt to her surroundings and learn from the island's unwelcoming animal inhabitants.

As Roz slowly befriends the animals, the island starts to feel like home--until, one day, the robot's mysterious past comes back to haunt her.

From bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator Peter Brown comes a heartwarming and action-packed novel about what happens when nature and technology collide.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Wild Robot:
A New York Times BestsellerAn Entertainment Weekly Best Middle Grade Book of the YearAn Amazon Best Book of the Year Top PickAn IndieBound BestsellerAn ALA Notable Book for ChildrenNew York Public Library Best Books for Kids PickKirkus Best Children's of the Year PickSchool Library Journal Best of the Year PickBank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year PickSunshine State Young Readers Award List Pick

"Brown has written a lively tale that is sure to engage young readers."―The New York Times

"Roz may not feel emotions, but young readers certainly will as this tender, captivating tale unfolds."―The Washington Post

* "[Peter] Brown's picture books are consistent bestsellers and critically acclaimed. Expect readers to go wild for his robot-themed novel."―Booklist, starred review

* "While the end to Roz's benign and wildlife is startling and violent, Brown leaves Roz and her companions--and readers--with hope. Thought-provoking and charming."―Kirkus, starred review

* "This strong debut middle grade novel by the acclaimed picture book author/illustrator is a first purchase for most middle grade collections."―School Library Journal, starred review

* "Brown's middle-grade debut, an uplifting story about an unexpected visitor whose arrival disrupts the animal inhabitants of a rocky island, has a contemporary twist...Brown wisely eschews a happy ending in favor of an open-ended one that supports the tone of a story that's simultaneously unsentimental and saturated with feeling."―Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Roz is not easy to forget."―The Horn Book

Readers Top Reviews

AliceDr MikeD. J.

One of the nicest stories I've read in a while. My class of year 3 children chose this from a list of 100 rec'd books for Year 3 and we're using it as a guided reading book. It's lovely. In terms of teacher stuff: • The language is rich and interesting but easy to read and decipher. • The chapters are short but full of information. There isn't a single chapter that has been anything close to filler. One of my TAs said the book would have been perfect for her son because he couldn't handle reading long books, but with the short chapters - some of less than a full page - he would have been able to handle this. • The way the author uses subtle hints to create a picture is so creative and lends itself really well to high level inference and figuring out context from words used. Most importantly though, as someone who has read the book to see if they'd enjoy it as a story -- it's such a gorgeous tale of belonging and fitting in that I couldn't put it down. I read the whole thing in about 2 hours and couldn't stop. Even the slow build start is interesting enough for my kiddos to want to devour it just like I did. A wonderful story and I'm so glad our random number generator picked this from our 100 list and then that my kids voted for it.

Constant ReaderBr

I am out of step with the majority of the reviewers who found the first part of the book so charming and dear. But then again, it was not written for an adult reader. This book was written for a very young audience and it could not hold my attention. To tell you the truth, I doubt that any of my sons would have enjoyed this book when they were young. I did not finish the book so I cannot comment on the violence in the ending that is described in other reviews.

Anonymous Shopper

Review from 10-year old boy: I loved the book. Robots are awesome. Same thing with the wilderness. If you combine them together, you get this book. This book is so good it's hard to put down. I read for two hours and 30 minutes straight and could've kept going. That's a new record for me. With the books I used to read, I could only read for an hour. One of the other reasons I like this book is because none of the main characters die. Up until I finished the book, I knew it was a best seller. My dad really liked the book too.

C. W. SmithAnonym

For as long as I can remember, I--like the author--have been obsessed with robots, even more with robots interacting with the natural world in some bizarre capacity. So when I saw this novel, I couldn't wait to read it. Luckily, my lovely wife gifted it to me for Christmas, so here we are, me having read it. In general, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It definitely feels like an extended children's illustrated storybook, and that's not a bad thing. However, it might take a bit for some folks to really get into the groove of the novel--as, for a kids book, the real "story" takes a bit to truly get moving. Along those lines, this is definitely for younger readers. But some parents / guardians / those-reading-the-book-aloud-to-someone might be caught off guard by the surprising violence near the book's end. For such a fun and cute story--even with some small moments of natural darkness--the climactic chapters seemed a bit much and out of place for such a story. Still, it has solid writing and a fun story, and the artwork is truly gorgeous. Brown's work is fantastic, and I'm glad to see that his long-form storytelling is almost as solid as his short form. It might not have been the norm for him, but I'll be there to read his next middle-grade novel, too.

T. NoffyBittyC. W

The big takeaway here is that people are bad if you read this book. There's some sjw messaging if you're into that.