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Mar 09, 2017Saoirse253 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Loved this book. This might be the "edgiest" thing I've read with the 8 year old so far in terms of serious themes handled more matter of factly, and not sugar-coated. The gist of the story is that a cargo ship has been lost at sea. A number of boxes or crates containing robots have washed up on an island. Only one survives intact and is accidentally activated by a curious bunch of island animals. Roz as she comes to be known, adapts slowly to life on the island via a series of adventurous, humorous and sometimes sad situations. The author sets out the story in short chapters and very straight forward language that manages to bring the island and each of the animal voices to life. We read this aloud together which was great because we stopped occasionally to talk something over that had occurred. Themes? Community, alternative families, native life, environment, death, mothers and sons...I can't say enough good things about this short novel. For anyone with kids in their lives, or not.