This story taps into the same, rich vein as The Iron Giant. It's a thin little volume, deceptively appropriate for younger readers, but be prepared -- it will make you cry.
ROZZUM unit 7134 washes up on the shore of a remote island after a shipwreck. She's the only robot survivor.
From the moment she opens her eyes, she's challenged to learn and survive in her alien surroundings (nature). The wild animals are all terrified of her, thinking unfairly that she's a monster, until she adopts, quite by chance, a gosling who hatches and imprints on her as "Mama."
From that point forward, Roz has purpose -- seeing her gosling to adulthood. She does all sorts of things for him, including helping all the woodland animals stay warm through one of the worst winters ever.
The problem comes when the owners of the shipwrecked robots send more robots to find Roz. I won't spoil how it ends, just know, there are tears aplenty.
At its core, the story examines what it means to be human and shines the not-so-flattering mirror on some of our worst traits.
It would be an excellent addition to an elementary classroom library for discovery by potential robot lovers.
In this thoughtful, gentle sequel to the original, Roz cunningly hid everything she learned from living on the island, so when she awakens on the Shareef family farm, she can plan her escape.
The farm is crumbling around her, but she pretends to want to do her programming -- taking care of the cows, milking them, protecting them from wolves. All along, even when she interacts with Farmer Shareef's two children, she's scheming a way to escape and get back to her island and goose son, Brightbill.
Of course, Brightbill has wings and can come to her -- which he does, after he finds her -- but Roz still has to escape. She tries, but she's discovered by Dr. Molovo, the creator of the Rozzum robots, and when Dr. Molovo discovers Roz has learned, independent of and in addition to her programming...well, I won't spoil the ending! You have to read to experience the twist.
A wonderful read!
