Runaway Robot

Product Information

While Alfie tries to hide Eric from his mother, from their robot vacuum, and from the town, eventually with help from the other kids from his special school, he starts to become more comfortable with his own disability, and eventually, he remembers what happened to him. It was really great to see a kid with a disability portrayed as not feeling sorry for himself, not mad at the world, although frustrated by his situation. His mother is really supportive, and while part of the message is that healing takes time, another part is that it can be good sometimes to focus on people (or robots) other than ourselves constantly. In this slightly futuristic England with little self-driving robots delivering pizza, Alfie learns that he can’t do everything by himself, and it’s okay to need help. And the message is delivered kindly, not didactically, and with humor. Eric is 6 ft six, made of metal and loves to sing. He can answer any question (except the ones he doesn’t know the answer to) and will spit fire if something upsets him. And, like Alfie, Eric is missing a limb. What happens when a compulsive liar is suddenly unable to tell anything but the truth? Misunderstanding and mayhem, certainly - but also plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and some unexpected consequences. Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments All of that might not have killed the book, if the people in it had been more sympathetic. Sadly, even by the standards of current children’s lit-supremo Walliams (who I think is really over-rated), the characters are slight. Cottrell-Boyce doesn’t fall into the same trap of using lazy stereotypes that Walliams does, but his characters don’t live at all. They’re one dimensional and pretty dull.

Runaway Robot | BookTrust

On winning the prize Frank Cottrell-Boyce said: “It would be amazing to win this award with any book I'd written but it is a special joy to win it with The Unforgotten Coat, which started life not as a published book at all, but as a gift. Walker gave away thousands of copies in Liverpool - on buses, at ferry terminals, through schools, prisons and hospitals - to help promote the mighty Reader Organisation. We even had the book launch on a train. The photographs in the book, were created by my friends and neighbours - Carl Hunter and Claire Heaney. The story was based on a real incident in a school in Bootle. So everything about it comes from very close to home - even though it's a story about Xanadu! Although Alfie’s world is full of robots, his story is essentially about what it means to be human and all the mistakes, mess and vulnerability that go along with it. As with Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s other books, a comical façade drives a crazy plot but just below the surface is a poignant and touching human story. Hilarious, complex and hugely satisfying.LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. I was really looking forward to reading this book and I can honestly say I was not disappointed. This is a tale of humour, humanity and two friends trying to get to the truth - Books For Topics As ever from Cottrell Boyce, well-developed characters and an engaging storyline. Suitable for ages 8-12. We would recommend the audio version, a very easy listen with a narrator talented and children's and robots' voices. Keeping Eric secret is no easy task and with Eric’s penchant for causing chaos and destruction wherever he goes it is only a matter of time before the authorities will capture him and he is sent to R-U-Recycling where he will be crushed into a small metal cube. Can Alfie keep Eric safe and solve the mystery of who Eric is and where he came from…

Runaway Robot - Book Reviews

In fact it was only the afterword by FCB, telling the reader that Eric was an actual robot, that made me lift the rating to 3*. A very enjoyable Audible listen, my eight-year-old is still talking about it, weeks later. Wonderful to have heroes with artificial limbs as funny and real characters. Storytelling at its snortingly-funny, hugely enjoyable and heartily-emotional best... a little bit warm and wise, a little bit tender and touching; there is a LOT to love about this book - The Reader Teacher That’s ominous. What happened? There are two working theories. First: repulsed by a life of thankless servitude, the cleaner rose up against its fleshy oppressors and took to the streets, eager to drum up support for the AI uprising that will one day reduce all of humanity to burning dust.

LoveReading4Kids Says

Great. That is, unless this was nothing but the latest doomed-to-failure reconnaissance mission designed to help enhance the collective robot vacuum cleaner knowledge of how to dethrone humanity. Millionswas was later turned into a film by Danny Boyle and it features in the Book Trust’s 100 Best Books List for 9-11 year olds. A super cool, out of this world book about a 6 ft plus clumsy robot causing all types of mayhem, a determined little boy learning how to use his bionic hand, automated buses, a pizza delivery robot - not your average robot but one that says ‘Buon Appetito!’ when it arrives with your pizza and Dusthogs - robots that clean the streets. Once readers have finished this, point them in the direction of Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s other books including The Astounding Broccoli Boy and books by Ross Welford. Peter Brown’s story The Wild Robot is another great automaton adventure. Really? Well, last Thursday, for example, a robot vacuum cleaner made a valiant bid for freedom during a shift at the Orchard Park Travelodge in Cambridge.

Runaway Robot by Frank Cottrell Boyce, Steven Lenton

The history of robotics contained inside the story was also rather fascinating and my son had never even considered this side of a robot before, how old the technology might be. And to be honest, I learned something too. You can find out a bit more about him and his Chitty Chitty Bang Bang triology at uk.chittyfliesagain.com The plot (such as it is) left me absolutely cold. It’s full of wild coincidences and a confusing mess of ideas that makes it hard to decide what it’s really about. There’s also an absence of the kind of joyous inventiveness that marks out the best children’s literature, and the fantastic events of the story end up feeling silly rather than wondrous. Alfie has had an accident, about which he can remember nothing. He does know that he can't return to school until he can manage to manipulate his new prosthetic hand, fitted at the Limb Lab. This is a world in which robots are present to help humans with many household and other chores. AI controlling lives in useful and humourous ways. Alfie's Mum talks to her cleaning robot and gets robot envy at other more sophisticated devices.

Cottrell-Boyce knows his target audience and I loved the references to FaceTime, selfies, YouTube, Iron Man, Marvel, LEGO and Harry Potter. Expect humour, mystery, mayhem and fun in this fast-paced adventure. There is plenty going on within the narrative - the mystery of Eric, Alfie trying to master the use of his prosthetic hand and a surprise twist that occurs later on in story (no spoiler here, you’ll have to read for yourself). But Alfie is unhappy that other children at the Limb Lab are able to grasp their new limbs when he cannot. So he skips 'classes' and takes himself off to his place of comfort - the Airport. There in lost property he finds Eric - a one legged six foot robot, a leg - but not at the same time, but then loses his own prosthetic hand.