As a guest teacher in five different districts around San Diego, I enter many different classrooms of different level, age group, and even native language. Across all of these categories I find this book (or its sequels) usually left by the teacher as a read aloud. It covers a subject that is relevant for the technological level of our society and seems common in young adult literature- one example being that in fourth grade my daughter was introduced to the audio play called “Six Minutes” in which a displaced, disoriented girl turns out to be a robot who is passed off as a human. Certain topics mark certain generations- this topic seems to be one of the definers of Generation Alpha.
The tale begins when a hurricane shipwrecks a cargo ship full of robots off the coast of an island. All of the robots are destroyed except one- with the name of Roz. Roz awakens and finds herself alone on the island, she realizes she must survive. She has initial adventures and troubles with climbing, camouflage, bad weather and then experiences a downpour that washes her off a cliff and she crashes into a goose nest. In this nest is the lone baby who survived the accident- and Roz adopts it as her own son.
The middle portion of the book develops this relationship between the robot and the goose- and opens up questions about how a robot could use its programmed data to acquire the skills to keep a child- even a child that is a goose. But over time the attachment grows and Roz and her son Brightbill function as a modern day family.
Of course as Brightbill reaches adulthood he realizes he is not a robot- he identifies with the geese and decides to fly with them to a warmer climate for the winter. Roz survives by building herself an insulated cave with a fire- and many animals (even predatory/prey groupings of animals) take refuge and are saved by the heat of the cave- so she builds more caves. She saves more animals from the bitter cold of winter.
And when they celebrate the winter ending- a huge bonfire alerts a passing ship that Roz is on the island- and soon three RECO robots arrive to collect her and redirect her to do the work her original factory instructions required.
Roz by now has many friends, including Brightbill who has returned from his winter migration. The ending is an exciting cat and mouse chase in which they locate, target and kill the three capturing robots and then Roz gets on their ship to fly to where she can get reprogrammed, repaired and repurposed from her makers.
This charming tale explores what it means to be a robot- and at what point the experience of a robot goes beyond simple computer programming- is it possible for the robot to feel human feelings and experience human attachment.
