The Wild Robot (The Wild Robot, #1) by Peter Brown

Narrated by Kate Atwater

Synopsis (via Goodreads): When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island. Why is she there? Where did she come from? And, most important, how will she survive in her harsh surroundings? Roz's only hope is to learn from the island's hostile animal inhabitants. When she tries to care for an orphaned gosling, the other animals finally decide to help, and the island starts to feel like home. Until one day, the robot's mysterious past comes back to haunt her....

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I stumbled across The Wild Robot when I was looking for audiobooks for my kids to listen to in the car. I wanted to find something fun and engaging, because someone speaking seems to hold their attention longer than someone singing. 

They absolutely loved this book, and so did I. I was able to relate to Roz throughout the story, and my son would frequently ask very thought-provoking questions.

Roz felt out of place in her new home, but she accepted her surroundings and chose to survive. It was technically what she was programmed to do, but I think she took interest in things other robots would have ignored. She learned how to camouflage herself after an unfortunate encounter, and I believe that's when she started acting a little less robotic.

It took me a few chapters to get into the rhythm of the story, because Roz does a lot of sitting around at the beginning, and she has to learn a lot of basic information we already know. The audiobook also includes a lot of sound effects at the start, which really distracted me from the story. My son enjoyed hearing the waves crashing in the background, and it made the story feel somewhat realistic, but I was glad when it stopped.

When Roz adopted an orphaned gosling, my heart splintered into tiny pieces. She's a robot, so she doesn't technically have feelings or emotions, but she chooses to pretend for the sake of her new baby. She spent a lot of weeks watching the animals to learn their survival skills, and to understand how they communicate with one another. Eventually, Roz is able to have conversations will all of the animals on the island, and I thought those were fascinating perspectives to portray.

I disliked the animal deaths, especially the ones that were her fault (unintentionally), but Roz acknowledges that death is also a part of life. Some animals die so that others can live, and it maintains a balance on the island. It was still hard to listen to, especially when Roz gives an unemotional account of their deaths.

The narrator for this was fantastic! She does so many voices, and I never had trouble discerning who was speaking. Every animal had a unique voice, and I liked how much effort she (combined with the author's writing) put into giving them different personalities and expressions.

The Wild Robot was about acceptance, understanding, and relationships. Brightbill didn't care that his mother was a robot, because he knew she loved him in every way that she could. Roz also cared deeply for her son and worried about his safety, despite a robot's inability to feel. Roz is also willing to help the animals of the island, even after they call her a monster and outright attack her. She never responds with violence or gets angry, but patiently waits for an opportunity to be helpful.

My children really enjoyed listening to this in the car. It gave us something to talk about once we were home, and it made them pay attention and think while we were driving somewhere. The audiobook itself was only around four hours, but it took us a little under a week to get through it. We're not in the car that often, and never for long periods of time. Plus, I had to pause it whenever someone asked a question.

I'm looking forward to the next book in this series! The ending was a little brutal, so I'm curious where the story will go from there. Now I just need a physical copy so we can see the illustrations...