1 September 2026 by Penguin Random House
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
On the planet Somewhere 513, a robot waits on a pile of trash. His battery will never wear out, but he doesn't see the point of doing anything. After ten years, he builds himself a house. Shortly afterwards, he is surprised by the appearance of two human children, Grant and Paige, who are looking for the King of the Robots. Their mother, Dandelion Brightside, was the scientist who made the robot, whom they call Scrap, and developed the K1-NG core that powers. Their father, Tripp Gander, has died, and they need Scrap to help them get back to the Outskirts, where they live, and find the Pink foot spacecraft to leave Somewhere 513. There is a rich and troublesome history to the planet, and humans are no longer supposed to live there after a series of wars when the robots who terraformed and set up the planet wiped out most of the settlers because the robots wanted the planet for themselves. Shortly after the girls introduce themselves to Scrap, to robot "hunters", Terry and June, arrive and want to kill the girls, even though they pretend to be robots. Scrap's house is destroyed, and he is forced to flee. He ends up having to have some repairs done by Dr. Buckle at the Bad Knees Outpost, and learns that most robots want to constantly upgrade their cases. Harmony Highshine, the mayor of the biggest town, has Scrap on her radar and sends Gunner K11-LU to find him. There are many tense moments, but secrets come to light when Scrap and the girls meet Morton Prometheus, who has Scrap's original case. Will Scrap be able to help the daughters of his creator to safety?
On the planet Somewhere 513, a robot waits on a pile of trash. His battery will never wear out, but he doesn't see the point of doing anything. After ten years, he builds himself a house. Shortly afterwards, he is surprised by the appearance of two human children, Grant and Paige, who are looking for the King of the Robots. Their mother, Dandelion Brightside, was the scientist who made the robot, whom they call Scrap, and developed the K1-NG core that powers. Their father, Tripp Gander, has died, and they need Scrap to help them get back to the Outskirts, where they live, and find the Pink foot spacecraft to leave Somewhere 513. There is a rich and troublesome history to the planet, and humans are no longer supposed to live there after a series of wars when the robots who terraformed and set up the planet wiped out most of the settlers because the robots wanted the planet for themselves. Shortly after the girls introduce themselves to Scrap, to robot "hunters", Terry and June, arrive and want to kill the girls, even though they pretend to be robots. Scrap's house is destroyed, and he is forced to flee. He ends up having to have some repairs done by Dr. Buckle at the Bad Knees Outpost, and learns that most robots want to constantly upgrade their cases. Harmony Highshine, the mayor of the biggest town, has Scrap on her radar and sends Gunner K11-LU to find him. There are many tense moments, but secrets come to light when Scrap and the girls meet Morton Prometheus, who has Scrap's original case. Will Scrap be able to help the daughters of his creator to safety?
Strengths: I'd love to see more middle grade science fiction that includes space adventure rather than dystopias, like Emerson's Last Day on Mars or Swiedler's In the Red, and this comes pretty close. The idea of an entire planet run by robots who have rebelled against humans is interesting, especially if there are children trying to survive on the planet. Robot books, with well developed rules for these creations, are generally popular with middle grade readers, especially those who may have created simpler forms of robots themselves. The robot characters have well developed personalities, and some are quirky and fun (if a little power mad), like Dr. Buckle and Harmony Highshine. My favorite was probably Morton Prometheus, who started life as a shoveling robot and really just wanted to return to that lifestyle.
Weaknesses: I felt like I was missing something. There could have been a whole book about the robot uprising that would have been interesting. Scrap tends to truncate his "ing"s, and says "nothin'" and the like, which seemed odd. Unless a robot were programmed that way, wouldn't its speech be fairly precise? At one point, Scrap is short circuited by emotion and passes out, which also seems like a flaw in robot design.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed books about robots who attain sentience and have emotions, like Kelly's The Second Life of Snap, Warga's A Rover's Story, or Brown's The Wild Robot. This also reminded me a little of Perry's Scavengers.
I'm not one to romanticize robots; thinking they have emotions makes as much sense to me as imagining that one's toaster has feelings. Still, this must appeal to some people.
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