LoveReading4Kids Says
LoveReading4Kids Says
Longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2020
No matter how exciting, zany and surprising the action, you can always be sure that Frank Cottrell-Boyce will build his stories on real human emotions, and that’s as true of this brilliantly funny, original and touching novel as of any of its predecessors. Alfie ‘swerves’ both school and the Limb Lab, where he should be going to learn how to control his state-of-the-art new hand, by hanging out at the airport. But everything changes when, through various happy accidents, he finds an enormous robot called Eric in Lost Property. Eric holds the Allen key to the book’s mysteries, both a generations-old legend, and the secrets that Archie is keeping from the reader and himself. Beautifully told and full of characters readers will love, this book will have you laughing out loud one minute, in tears the next. Robot Eric, unfailingly polite, kind and helpful and trying to explain himself through misremembered jokes is an iron man for our time. Unmissable.
Once readers have finished this, point them in the direction of Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s other books including The Astounding Broccoli Boy and books by Ross Welford. Peter Brown’s story The Wild Robot is another great automaton adventure.
Andrea Reece
Find This Book In
| Suitable For: |
|
| Other Genres: |
|
About
Runaway Robot Synopsis
Runaway Robot is a funny and heartwarming adventure about two best friends helping put themselves back together, from the award-winning Frank Cottrell-Boyce, illustrated by Steven Lenton. When Alfie goes to Airport Lost Property, he finds more than he bargained for. A lot more. Because there's a giant robot called Eric hidden away on the shelves. Eric has lost one leg and half his memory. He's super strong, but super clumsy. He's convinced that he's the latest technology, when he's actually nearly one hundred year's old and ready for the scrap heap. Can Alfie find a way to save Eric from destruction - before Eric destroys everything around him?
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781509887910 |
| Publication date: |
6th February 2020 |
| Author: |
Frank Cottrell-Boyce |
| Illustrator: |
Steven Lenton |
| Publisher: |
Macmillan Children's Books an imprint of Pan Macmillan |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
271 pages |
| Suitable For: |
|
| Other Genres: |
|
Press Reviews
Frank Cottrell-Boyce Press Reviews
Confidently written with heart and humour, the unputdownable Runaway Robot will have children roaring with laughter and wanting a best friend robot of their own! - Armadillo
hilarious, complex and hugely satisfying - Booktrust
this is a story that will stick in the reader's mind long after the last page is read - Parents In Touch
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
I was really looking forward to reading this book and I can honestly say I was not disappointed. This is a tale of humour, humanity and two friends trying to get to the truth - Books For Topics
Frank's imagining of this futuristic world where pizza ovens deliver your pizza and driverless buses is really brilliant. Strangely it feels like you could touch it, it's so close and yet in my mind it still feels like a lifetime away. For me that made the story feel more real and added to the warmth I felt about this compelling tale. The characterisation is genuinely brilliant and wonderfully diverse - BookLover Jo
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
A brilliantly observed and sensitively written story about two unlikely best friends who help rebuild each other. There were plenty of moments which really made me chuckle but also some shocking reveals and scenes which made my bottom lip tremble a little. I would definitely recommend it for readers aged 8+ - Library girl
A funny and heartwarming adventure - Ni4Kids
A masterpiece that deserves to sell millions -- Amanda Craig - New Statesman
The world he imagines is cleverly conceived and the spirit of fun and adventure is pure Cottrell Boyce, but there are also messages about acceptance and diversity, tucked away between the madcap antics, which will resonate with readers of every age. Expect plenty of laughs, some unexpected twists and turns, and a big smile as the last page turns. - Lancashire Evening Post
What a funny, charming, life-affirming book. -- Richard Osman a comic and compelling tale set in a near-future filled with automated buses and dust-hog street cleaners, uproariously illustrated by Steven Lenton - Guardian
Author
About Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2024–2026
A World Book Day Author 2019
Frank Cottrell-Boyce is an accomplished, successful and award-winning author and screenwriter. His books have been shortlisted for a multitude of prizes, including the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Whitbread Children's Fiction Award (now the Costa Book Award) and the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and Millions, his debut children's novel, won the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2004.
Millions was was later turned into a film by Danny Boyle and it features in the Book Trust’s 100 Best Books List for 9-11 year olds.
Frank is also a successful writer of film scripts and was the official scriptwriter for the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympics, playing an important role devising the ceremony with Danny Boyle. He is also a judge for the BBC Radio 2 500 Words competition. You can read a great interview with Frank and one of his fellow judge, Francesca Simon here!
He has also created a fantastic trilogy, written with his trademark wit, warmth and sense of story, based upon Ian Fleming's novel, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, comprising Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Over the Moon.
His novel The Unforgotten Coat won the 2012 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.
On winning the prize Frank Cottrell-Boyce said: “It would be amazing to win this award with any book I'd written but it is a special joy to win it with The Unforgotten Coat, which started life not as a published book at all, but as a gift. Walker gave away thousands of copies in Liverpool - on buses, at ferry terminals, through schools, prisons and hospitals - to help promote the mighty Reader Organisation. We even had the book launch on a train. The photographs in the book, were created by my friends and neighbours - Carl Hunter and Claire Heaney. The story was based on a real incident in a school in Bootle. So everything about it comes from very close to home - even though it's a story about Xanadu!
“Being shortlisted for the Guardian Prize gives you a particularly warm glow because it is awarded by a panel of your fellow authors. Past winners include my childhood heroes - Alan Garner, Leon Garfield, Joan Aiken - and contemporary heroes like Mark Haddon, Geraldine McCaughrean and Meg Rosoff.”
He lives with his family in Liverpool.
Read our feature In conversation with Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the new Waterstones Children's Laureate for 2024-26
You can find out a bit more about him and his Chitty Chitty Bang Bang triology at uk.chittyfliesagain.com
More About Frank Cottrell-Boyce
More
.jpg)
