The Wild Robot Escapes

The Wild Robot Escapes, winner of the Parent’s Choice Silver Award, is the sequel to author and illustrator Peter Brown’s New York Times Bestseller The Wild Robot. Published in 2017 by Little Brown, the novel resumes the story of the empathetic robot Roz as she embarks on a quest to find her son and return to the wild island she calls home. Brown’s other works include Children Make Terrible Pets, Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, and The Curious Garden. In 2013, Creepy Carrots! won the prestigious Caldecott Honor and two E. B. White Read Aloud Awards, was named Best Illustrated Children’s Book by the New York Times, and was given the Children’s Book Choice Book Award for Illustrator of the Year. Brown has written and illustrated 10 books of his own and illustrates books for other authors. Brown uses his art and his words to inspire children to value themselves and others as individuals and to embrace creativity and imagination in everyday life.

The source material used for this guide comes from the 2018 edition by Little, Brown and Company.

Plot Summary

The story picks up where it left off at the end of the first novel, The Wild Robot. After a fierce battle on the island, the RECOs capture ROZZUM 7134, known as “Roz,” and return her to the factory where the Makers repair the robot and package her for resale as a refurbished model. A self-driving truck delivers a box containing the robot to Mr. Shareef, owner of Hilltop Farm. Having recently lost his wife along with sustaining a leg injury, Mr. Shareef needs help running his dairy farm and hopes the robot will solve all his problems. When he opens the box and clicks the power button, Roz wakes up and quickly reorients herself to a new landscape and new owner. Mr. Shareef wastes no time introducing Roz to the farm by explaining its disheveled state, and the robot sets to work immediately repairing broken machinery and reinstating order to the care and management of the cows, the farm’s most valuable resource.

The cows are at first frightened by Roz, but once they learn she speaks their language and shows she truly cares for their welfare, they become friends and allies with the displaced robot. Since Roz is programmed to be a hard worker, she devotes herself to the job, but she cannot stop herself from missing her old life on the island and most importantly, her adopted goose-son Brightbill. She befriends Mr. Shareef’s two children, Jad and Jaya, and enchants them with the story of a wild robot who lives on an island and cares for an orphaned goose. Though she comes to care for the children immensely, Roz decides she must find Brightbill, escape the farm, and return to the island.

A pack of hungry wolves led by Shadow descends onto the farm, and though Roz cannot use violence to fend them off, she does use her intelligence and camouflage skills to outsmart them. When a tornado hits the farm, Roz helps the family get to the storm shelter, but she is caught up in the storm and badly damaged. Mr. Shareef takes her to a repair shop where the technician robot restores her operating system. The harrowing experience endears Roz to the family, and she feels guilty about wanting to leave, but she cannot deny her feelings. After revealing the truth of her identity to the children, they agree to help her escape and begin researching her model. The children disassemble Roz and remove her Transmitter so that their father cannot trace her whereabouts when she escapes. Meanwhile, flocks of geese, which have visited the farm and heard Roz’s story, spread the news throughout the countryside, and Brightbill hears that his mother is trapped at Hilltop and bravely flies to the farm. Mother and son are reunited, and they formulate a plan to leave as soon as it is time for Brightbill to migrate.

After tearful goodbyes with the children, Roz and Brightbill set out through the countryside toward their home on the island. Roz uses grass, mud, and flowers to camouflage her shiny body, but she is always aware that a white airship carrying the RECOs could appear at any moment and take her away again to be destroyed. Brightbill flies above and aids with navigation, while Roz uses her powerful robot body to trudge, crawl, and sometimes climb through difficult terrain. The wolves, bent on revenge, track Roz down and threaten to attack Brightbill, but Roz uses her strength to jump high enough to cling onto a tree, and the wolves leave unsatisfied. After a hailstorm, a shy skunk named Sprinkles gives them shelter in her cabin, and a young ram named Thud helps them across the rugged mountains. Roz and Brightbill evade hunters in the woods, but Shadow finds them again and chases them to the seashore; however, since her instincts prohibit it, Roz cannot escape into the water. Brightbill sees a boat, and Roz jumps inside and rows out to sea, but when the waves pummel the rickety boat, it disintegrates and Brightbill watches as his mother sinks below the water. A kind whale named Coral rescues Roz and deposits her and Brightbill safely on land.

Having reached the edge of a bustling city, Roz foregoes her natural camouflage and decides to blend in with the other working robots of the town. Roz and Brightbill are separated during a train ride that takes the robot deeper into the city, and she feels lost without Brightbill’s navigational instincts. With the help of the city pigeons and a sewer rat, Roz almost makes it through the city, but when the ominous white airship appears overhead, and Roz can see the RECOs, she knows her time is up. Roz uses all her robot skills to leap and climb through the city, and legions of pigeons led, by Brightbill’s friend, Strutter, come to her defense, but the RECOs corner her on a rooftop, and she decides to give up the fight and sacrifice herself to save Brightbill. The RECOs dissolve her leg, and she tumbles over the edge of the building into darkness.

When Roz awakens, she sees her disassembled body on the floor and an older woman sitting before her. Dr. Molovo introduces herself as the lead robot maker at TechLab Industries and Roz’s Designer. Roz was her special project, and she is impressed with the robot’s work in fighting against the RECOs; however, the doctor is most intrigued by Roz’s mothering of a goose. Despite her admiration for her robot’s achievements, Dr. Molovo declares that Roz must be dispatched because her divergent behavior frightens humans. Roz begs for mercy, explaining that her purpose in life is to help people and animals, but Dr. Molovo tearfully clicks her power button and destroys ROZZUM 7134’s body, announcing to the humans that the rogue robot has been eradicated. Roz reawakens in a new body and learns that the doctor preserved her head and reattached it to a sturdier body that does not have a power button. Using her airship, Dr. Molovo returns Roz and Brightbill to the island and promises to protect it from the human world. All the island animals welcome Roz and Brightbill home, and mother and son walk to the top of the mountain to watch the sun set over their beloved home.