Roz finds herself on a dairy farm, where she learns how to help the family (father and two kids) and speaks to the farm animals in their own language. Roz hides her true self from the humans so they won't mark her defective and destroy her, but spreads her story to the animals via migrating geese, which eventually brings Brightbill to the farm. With the children's help (to remove her transmitter), Roz escapes, but faces many obstacles - including her own creator - on her way to return to the island with Brightbill. ( )

At the end of the previous book, Roz left the island on one of the RECO ships in order to get herself repaired and keep more RECOs from coming after her. At the start of this book, Roz has been purchased by a farmer named Mr. Shareef, who can no longer take care of his dairy farm by himself now that his wife has passed away and his own injuries make it difficult for him to do the farm's more physical tasks. Roz, as it turns out, is perfect for farm work. Always careful to hide her true self from humans, Roz introduces herself to the farm's cows and starts trying to find a way to escape. It won't be easy - Mr. Shareef has a way to track Roz and goes looking for her anytime she leaves the farm. Even so, Roz refuses to give up hope that she'll someday be reunited with Brightbill, her son.

Whereas the first book was about Roz gaining a family/community and learning to survive in the wilderness, in this book, she's doing the work she technically was built for and learning about the world she came from. She uses the survival skills she learned in the wilderness to keep the "aberrations" in her programming from becoming apparent to Mr. Shareef and others, camouflaging herself by pretending to be a regular robot. The emotional skills she gained on the island also come in handy as she befriends the farm's cows and, eventually, Mr. Shareef's children.

After the way the first book ended, I needed to see how/if Roz would make it back to the island and see Brightbill again. The author continued to include reminders that life in the wilderness is hard - there are mentions of animals having died (no on-page deaths, as far as I can recall) but, as in the first book, it's generally accepted as something that happens sometimes. The more heartstring tugging moments were saved for the mother-son bond between Roz and Brightbill, especially when Roz's efforts to escape potentially put Brightbill in danger.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. I plan to read the third book, although this second book doesn't end in a way that immediately suggests what the third book might be about - no cliffhanger.

Extras:

Black-and-white illustrations throughout, a note from the author, a discussion guide, and "behind the scenes" pages featuring the author's initial design sketches.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

In this book Rox the robot asks a child to keep a secret from their father, so please be aware of this and use your best judgement as to if this is a good fit for your family.

Roz gets taken to the robot repair factory for repairs and then shipped out to help at a Hilltop Farm for the Shreef family. She makes friends with the cows on the farm, as well as the two children, who are always asking for more stories about the robot on the island. Roz misses her friends and adopted goose son, Brightbill, back on the island and is always planning the perfect time for her escape. But she can’t do it alone.

I feel like I loved this second book in the series just a little more than I did the first. I think because I was so invested in Roz and Brightbill reuniting. I sat up so late one night reading this and gasping and chuckling so hard that I would worry about waking my partner up. When I finally persuaded myself to stop for the night, the chapter I started with first thing the next morning ended in a cliffhanger and I would have stayed up even later to read more if I had continued.

Throughout the novel, I loved that everyone had heard stories, or rumors, about a robot mother and her duck son and how excited they were to finally meet Roz. Because of this, Roz had so many allies everywhere she went and it made her escape more realistic in a way (even with talking animals).

The illustrations were a wonderful addition to this, just like in the first. I especially liked to read about Peter Brown’s writing and illustrating process that he talks about in the end. It kind of made the illustrations even more fun.

Overall, this book has great lessons and opportunities to open doors for discussion about kindness, helping one another, love, the meaning of home, and what it means to be human. The writing in this is still simplified, just like the first one (childlike, but with older themes), but I believe both children and adults will love it - just like I did. ( )