Runaway Robot by Frank Cottrell-Boyce illustrated by Steven Lenton

Alfie has an artificial hand. We don't know what has happened but now he has to attend a special school called Limb Lab where he is learning to use his Osprey Grip MM.  Alfie has no friends among his classmates, in fact one girl acts like his enemy, and he is finding the exercises designed to make the responses of his hand feel normal are difficult, annoying and frustrating. Limb Lab and Alfie's home are near an airport. Alfie has decided it is better to spend his days wandering around arrivals and departures and avoid both schools. His mum is too busy to notice what he is doing. Alfie knows she will assume he is at Limb Lab and the director of Limb Lab - Dr Shilling - assumes he is at his regular school.

The airport is not quite the perfect place to blend in, though, because Alfie is not going anywhere nor is he meeting someone who is arriving. The cafe lady becomes suspicious and grabs hold of Alfie. She grabs his hand (nicked named Lefty - it is his right hand) and his hand falls off. Alfie escapes but now his hand is missing and this is how he finds himself in the airport lost property office.

Sitting on a shelf in lost property is a huge robot called Eric.

"Eric is six foot six.
He like to sing.
He's super polite.
He does as he's told.
He's made of metal. ...
Eric tends to take things literally."

Eric and Alfie become friends. Eric is a gentle giant but others think he is dangerous. Alfie wants to help Eric. He finds a scooter which Eric can use in place of his missing his leg. It is wonderful the way Alfie is able to understand Eric's simple mind.  Eric's jokes are not funny and he keeps saying (in capital letters) I AM YOUR OBEDIENT SERVANT. MY NAME IS ERIC I AM LOST, but he can make a terrific cup of tea.

This book is a mad cap adventure with heaps of action but also with an underlying level of poignancy as we race to sort out Eric's identity and discover the truth about how Alfie lost his hand and why he has no memory of his accident.

There are some inventive and futuristic ideas in this book. Buses without drivers, houses that use iris recognition to welcome you home and open your front door, hedgehog-like cleaning robots who deliver messages and update you on the news and Alfie's own bionic hand which contains tools of all kinds including a GPS tracker. Click each of these review quotes for more plot details if I have not yet convinced you this is a BRILLIANT book!

Make sure when you read this book you take a look at page 91 where there is a tiny illustration error. Here is an audio sample from Chapter One.

Cottrell-Boyce writes with confidence and flair, spillinghis story into the reader’s head with artistry and comedy, so that readers areequally amused and enthralled, but also touched with a large brush of heart. Hehas a keen eye for human quirks, and seeing them play out both robotically aswell as in humans, is rather fun. Minerva Reads

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.Book Trust

Beautifully told and full of characters readers will love, this book will have you laughing out loud one minute, in tears the next. Robot Eric, unfailingly polite, kind and helpful and trying to explain himself through misremembered jokes is an iron man for our time. Unmissable. LoveReading4Kids

I am a huge fan of books about robots. Here are some I have read recently.

Monstrous Devices

Boot Book One; Boot Book Two

The Wild Robot

Tin

Steven Lenton has a terrific body of work including a number of book covers for Frank Cotrell-Boyce and the series Shifty McGifty and Slipery Sam.