Lively and thought provoking.
Pedro is separated from his mother on a trip from Bogotá to a Caribbean island.
Smallest in his class and bullied, 10-year-old Pedro is thrilled about the vacation but finds himself wondering if his father’s “business trip” is really a permanent estrangement. Manuela and her son are so close that they can read one another’s expressions, but Pedro, angry that she's concealed the truth about his father, runs away. Lost and hungry, Pedro is discovered by Johnny Tay, an elderly and irascible island dweller who lets him stay the night in his shanty. Johnny’s parrot, Victoria, allegedly 300 years old, regales Pedro with firsthand accounts of the shipboard adventures of Johnny’s great-grandfather’s great-grandfather, a cook to pirates. During Pedro’s absence, Manuela realizes that her maturing son deserves more candor and freedom. Over breakfast, Johnny says that he’ll help reunite Pedro and Manuela “in good time.” After the two of them go snorkeling and spear-fishing and enjoy a lunch of fresh red snapper, Johnny has begun to repair his motorbike just as Manuela arrives in a police truck. Made up of salient early moments in a boy’s coming of age, this Colombian import contains glints of magical realism and a picaresque, albeit parrot-narrated, pirate subplot. Pedro grows and shrinks according to his emotional state, and Escobar’s wry musings about treasure—is it the purported pirates’ plundered gold, or the island’s magnificent, prolific breadfruit tree?—sparkle like the seven-colored sea. Builes’ pale, delicate illustrations add humorous touches.
Lively and thought provoking. (Fiction. 7-12)Pub Date: July 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781592704095
Page Count: 124
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
Thought-provoking and charming.
A sophisticated robot—with the capacity to use senses of sight, hearing, and smell—is washed to shore on an island, the only robot survivor of a cargo of 500.
When otters play with her protective packaging, the robot is accidently activated. Roz, though without emotions, is intelligent and versatile. She can observe and learn in service of both her survival and her principle function: to help. Brown links these basic functions to the kind of evolution Roz undergoes as she figures out how to stay dry and intact in her wild environment—not easy, with pine cones and poop dropping from above, stormy weather, and a family of cranky bears. She learns to understand and eventually speak the language of the wild creatures (each species with its different “accent”). An accident leaves her the sole protector of a baby goose, and Roz must ask other creatures for help to shelter and feed the gosling. Roz’s growing connection with her environment is sweetly funny, reminiscent of Randall Jarrell’s The Animal Family. At every moment Roz’s actions seem plausible and logical yet surprisingly full of something like feeling. Robot hunters with guns figure into the climax of the story as the outside world intrudes. While the end to Roz’s benign and wild life is startling and violent, Brown leaves Roz and her companions—and readers—with hope.
Thought-provoking and charming. (Science fiction/fantasy. 7-11)Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-38199-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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