Robot hunters with guns figure into the climax of the story as the outside world intrudes. At every moment Roz’s actions seem plausible and logical yet surprisingly full of something like feeling. Roz’s growing connection with her environment is sweetly funny, reminiscent of Randall Jarrell’s The Animal Family. An accident leaves her the sole protector of a baby goose, and Roz must ask other creatures for help to shelter and feed the gosling. She learns to understand and eventually speak the language of the wild creatures (each species with its different “accent”). Brown links these basic functions to the kind of evolution Roz undergoes as she figures out how to stay dry and intact in her wild environment-not easy, with pine cones and poop dropping from above, stormy weather, and a family of cranky bears. She can observe and learn in service of both her survival and her principle function: to help. Roz, though without emotions, is intelligent and versatile. When otters play with her protective packaging, the robot is accidently activated. A sophisticated robot-with the capacity to use senses of sight, hearing, and smell-is washed to shore on an island, the only robot survivor of a cargo of 500.
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