SPOILER FREE REVIEW - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I did not expect to love this book as much as I did, but oh my god.
The Wild Robot follows a robot named Roz that gets washed up on an island after the cargo ship she was travelling on gets wrecked in a storm. While she wasn’t the only robot on the ship, she was the only survivor. However, she most certainly isn’t the only inhabitant on the island. Roz quickly makes it her mission to learn how to not only survive, but thrive in an environment that she clearly wasn’t made for- But the animals were.
This book gave me everything that A Psalm For The Wild Built didn’t (sorry not sorry, I need to review that one at a later date too because I have sooo many thoughts). It was heartfelt, funny, and confronted difficult topics such as displacement and grief with so much grace and tenderness that I genuinely found myself sobbing over a goose. This is a CHILDREN’S BOOK. For CHILDREN.
The book is also illustrated by the author, and the artwork in this book might be some of my favourite of all-time. Totally re-ignited my desire to write and illustrate a children’s book of my own.. 👀
This was a genuinely fantastic read, easy to fly through in a few hours, and will leave you feeling all of the warm fuzzies and with a renewed respect for nature that will make you want to sit in a forest and just observe your surroundings for the next few days. While this is “only” a kids book, giving it any less than 5 stars for how much it accomplished in such a simple and wonderful way just felt wrong. I would highly highly recommend this one to anyone in a bit of a reading slump, or anyone looking for some pure and heartfelt escapism. And if you have kids- PLEASE read this with them! Peter Brown, you magical man. Save some for the rest of us (and if you see this- I will gladly trade you a kidney for a signed copy, please and thanks 🥰).