Runaway Robot

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It was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2008 and the inaugural Roald Dahl Funny Prize. A cross between Kryten (Red Dwarf - pompous and forever quoting roles) and Buzz Lightyear (he thinks he's new and state-of-the-art), Eric and Alfie end up helping each other, as these stories often go. The read provide lots of scope for discussion around issues of robots, robots with human emotions, and whether robots and humans can live alongside one another. When he attracts unwanted attention and he loses his prosthetic hand he finds himself at Lost Property and this is where he meets Eric.

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Cottrell-Boyce knows his target audience and I loved the references to FaceTime, selfies, YouTube, Iron Man, Marvel, LEGO and Harry Potter.The Limb Lab was a really fascinating setting for me; I mean super intelligent 3D printers that create perfect bionic body parts is unreal!

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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*. Eric holds the Allen key to the book’s mysteries, both a generations-old legend, and the secrets that Archie is keeping from the reader and himself. Filled to the brim with Frank Cottrell-Boyce's trademark humour, this book had an excellent protagonist who drove the plot along throughout. Rory Rooney is unremarkable in almost everything, apart from his capacity to attract the attention of the school bully.Frank Cottrell-Boyce does what he does best in this heart-warming and funny read which reminded me of the Iron Giant in parts. Confidently written with heart and humour, the unputdownable Runaway Robot will have children roaring with laughter and wanting a best friend robot of their own! Beautifully told and full of characters readers will love, this book will have you laughing out loud one minute, in tears the next. Misunderstanding and mayhem, certainly - but also plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and some unexpected consequences.

Runaway Robot by Frank Cottrell Boyce, Steven Lenton

It tells the story of Alfie, a young boy with a prosthetic hand, who finds a giant humanoid robot at the Lost Property office at the airport.This funny and fast paced book also has an aspect of mystery as we experience Alfie's memories of his accident coming back to him. We would recommend the audio version, a very easy listen with a narrator talented and children's and robots' voices. 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. There follows a predictable enough series of thrills and pratfalls before an emotionally uplifting conclusion.