This is a mad adventure to reunite Eric with his leg, Alfie with his hand, whilst saving Eric from the scrap heap all the adults are determined that Eric will be banished to. Steady on. This is it. This is how we lose. We have robotic voice assistants in our kitchens, listening to everything we say. We have cars that can drive themselves. Boston Dynamics is designing Terminator-style walking, jumping robots. We are creating our own downfall and nobody seems to care. Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing - A very enjoyable Audible listen, my eight-year-old is still talking about it, weeks later. Wonderful to have heroes with artificial limbs as funny and real characters. Unfortunately, he also has a tendency to squash police cars and anything else that gets in his way. Oh, and he’s also illegal, so unless Alfie can keep him hidden, he will be crushed at the R-U-Recycling scrapyard. Can Alfie save Eric from destruction? And should he even try if the news reports about a dangerous, rogue robot are true?

Runaway Robot | BookTrust

It tells the story of Alfie, a young boy with a prosthetic hand, who finds a giant humanoid robot at the Lost Property office at the airport. There follows a predictable enough series of thrills and pratfalls before an emotionally uplifting conclusion. It contains, then, all the elements that you’d expect in a modern kid’s book, and it is, at times, very funny. Unfortunately, good gags aren’t enough to carry it.But Alfie is unhappy that other children at the Limb Lab are able to grasp their new limbs when he cannot. So he skips 'classes' and takes himself off to his place of comfort - the Airport. There in lost property he finds Eric - a one legged six foot robot, a leg - but not at the same time, but then loses his own prosthetic hand. That’s ominous. What happened? There are two working theories. First: repulsed by a life of thankless servitude, the cleaner rose up against its fleshy oppressors and took to the streets, eager to drum up support for the AI uprising that will one day reduce all of humanity to burning dust. Great. That is, unless this was nothing but the latest doomed-to-failure reconnaissance mission designed to help enhance the collective robot vacuum cleaner knowledge of how to dethrone humanity. The cast of characters is a refreshing change. Alfie is a BAME amputee - a much under-represented people in children’s literature and the supporting characters are also child amputees who are the victims of war (this ties in nicely as these children have all been fitted with next-gen prosthetic limbs from the Limb Lab).

Runaway Robot by Frank Cottrell-Boyce (9781509887910

Storytelling at its snortingly-funny, hugely enjoyable and heartily-emotional best... a little bit warm and wise, a little bit tender and touching; there is a LOT to love about this book - The Reader Teacher As ever from Cottrell Boyce, well-developed characters and an engaging storyline. Suitable for ages 8-12. We would recommend the audio version, a very easy listen with a narrator talented and children's and robots' voices. 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.Eric is 6 ft six, made of metal and loves to sing. He can answer any question (except the ones he doesn’t know the answer to) and will spit fire if something upsets him. And, like Alfie, Eric is missing a limb. Alfie is quite a lost and lonely soul. He is off school after an accident in which he lost both his hand and his confidence. He takes to taking the bus and hanging out in the arrivals lounge at the airport; although it does take some skills to avoid detection from the authorities. When one day his presence is challenged it leads to an encounter with Eric, a giant one-legged robot in need of a friend. Alfie makes the decision to bring him home with him but a ban on humanoid robots has just been passed, which means Alfie is breaking the law by sheltering Eric. Eric is problematic - he has excellent manners and is polite and courteous; however, he takes instructions literally and that causes a whole lot of problems. They make a charming pair as together they tryy to remember how they each lost their missing body part! Set in a future where the world is highly automated it is a novel which raises issues of humanity, machines and our future roles together. As our world gets closer and closer to a more automated future it is a timely novel for discussion of serious topics of artificial intelligence and science and what makes us human. Cottrell-Boyce writes with confidence and flair, spilling his story into the reader's head with artistry and comedy, so that readers are equally amused and enthralled, but also touched with a large brush of heart. He has a keen eye for human quirks, and seeing them play out both robotically as well as in humans, is rather fun. And Steven Lenton's illustrations create that extra dimension of humour. - Minerva Reads Cottrell-Boyce knows his target audience and I loved the references to FaceTime, selfies, YouTube, Iron Man, Marvel, LEGO and Harry Potter. Expect humour, mystery, mayhem and fun in this fast-paced adventure. There is plenty going on within the narrative - the mystery of Eric, Alfie trying to master the use of his prosthetic hand and a surprise twist that occurs later on in story (no spoiler here, you’ll have to read for yourself).