The Wild Robot Protects: A Great Book To Read For The Summer - Abdurrahman

     In the last two blogs, I reviewed the first two books of The Wild Robot series: The Wild Robot and The Wild Robot Escapes, which are about a robot named Roz. I recently discovered that there is a new, third book in the series, called The Wild Robot Protects, so I was determined to read it. In this blog, I’ll share what I thought about the book, which arguably is the best book in the series. It revolves around the themes of protecting the environment and the interconnectedness of the natural world.

      Roz is a robot who found herself activated on an island without humans. To survive, she had to learn from the island’s animals, so she learned their language. At first, the island inhabitants rejected Roz and were afraid of the new addition to their lives, but after Roz responded with kindness, gave a helping hand in many situations, and showed the animals her adopted gosling, Brightbill, the animals loved Roz. She then became an inseparable part of the island’s community.

     After a long and perilous journey through the human world at the end of the previous book, The Wild Robot Escapes, Roz is miraculously saved from the evil hands of her creators, gets the repairs she needed, and returns with her adopted son (not a gosling anymore), Brightbill, to their home island.

     Life seems perfect for Roz as The Wild Robot Protects picks off the story from The Wild Robot Escapes. Her adopted son, Brightbill, even found a mate, and Roz will soon become a robotic grandmother. One day, a poisoned seal arrives on the island, warning the animals about a mysterious poison tide rapidly spreading across the oceans, destroying and killing countless coastal and underwater habitats and creatures. As the reader would guess, the poison tide is caused by humans. As the animals of the island feared, the poison tide reaches and engulfs their home. The island, which was once a paradise of happy animals, was now mostly a junkyard because the wind carried the poison spray across the island. The most severed parts of the island were the coastal areas, where all the underwater kelp forests and creatures were killed. The animal community, including the animals that usually lived on the coast but evacuated from it, was also severely splintered due to the emerging struggle for existence (biology class reference), where now each species competed for the limited resources of the island, including the most important resource: freshwater. Although Roz and the animals tried their best to fix things, like digging deep holes to store freshwater, life at the island remained desperate and hopeless, leading some migratory birds to leave the island for a better home. To fix things on her island, as well as things all over the animal world that have been affected by the poison tide, Roz embarks on an underwater, life-threatening journey to find the source of the poison tide and stop it. On the way, Roz witnesses the destruction caused to many coral reefs and underwater habitats, which are left uninhabited.

     When I first learned that Brightbill found a mate while reading this book, I was mind-blown. It was only a few years since Brightbill was born and adopted by Roz in The Wild Robot. Throughout the previous two books, I inadvertently believed that Brightbill was always a gosling. But no, as he is raised by Roz in the first book and experiences Roz’s journey home in the second book, the goose is growing fast, physically and mentally. This is a reminder of how short geese’s lives are compared to our lives.

     During Roz’s venture on the ocean floor, she notices the interconnectedness of aquatic creatures all over the oceans, such as through symbiotic relationships and communication across vast areas. The reader notices this the most when aquatic animals of all kinds, from zooplankton to sharks and whales, are unified and launch a devastating attack on the humans responsible for the poison tide, contributing to their goal of ending the poison tide. I wonder if aquatic creatures in the oceans of the real world are really this connected and can really be unified together for a common cause.

     Although the poison tide isn’t intentionally being caused by the responsible humans since it is an effect of an underwater operation for the benefit of humans, they are fully aware of it. This shows the greed of humans that overtakes their common sense. Sadly, this is quite realistic compared to our world. We may do things for our benefit, like overfishing, deforestation, the burning of fossil fuels, warfare, plastic production, bringing invasive species, and pollution, and we may ignore the side effects on the environment. This causes climate change, destroying numerous habitats and ecosystems all over the world. For example, 50% of coral reefs in the Caribbean are dead. Scientists predict that if global warming continues at its rate, all corals would be extinct a century later. This would destroy all marine ecosystems altogether because most aquatic creatures depend on corals, triggering a mass extinction. The destruction of coral reefs would also impact people worldwide who depend on coral reefs for food, including the 1 billion people in Asia that depend on corals. Climate change will also impact us humans for generations, causing frequent extreme temperatures, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and wildfires, and polluted air.

     If you have time in the summer, I recommend reading The Wild Robot Protects, a great read for all ages. The author shows the interconnectedness of various creatures, while also warning us about a dark future for our planet. Rating: 9.75/10