2022
WISE Score
Amazon
Think Wall-E with a bigger vocabulary and more feelings—it's a space mission that'll make you cry over a piece of hardware.
4.7
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This is the gold standard for modern middle-grade fiction. It’s got enough STEM cred to satisfy the science nerds and enough heart to wreck anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider.
Jasmine Warga pulls off the 'sentient robot' trope without making it feel cheesy or like a cheap Pixar knockoff. It’s safe, it’s smart, and it’s actually readable. No 'boring' penalty here—the pacing is snappy and the emotional payoff is 100% real.
Perfect for the 8-12 crowd, especially those who loved The Wild Robot or have a telescope gathering dust in their room.
It's a deeply empathetic story about friendship and finding your place in the world, even if you happen to be a robot. The bond between the rover and its drone companion is pure gold.
The book does a great job of imagining the internal logic of an AI learning to feel. It turns a dusty Mars landscape into a playground for the mind.
Extremely safe. No violence, language, or sketchy themes. There's some mild 'robot in peril' tension, but nothing that will keep a kid up at night for the wrong reasons.
It's a stealthy way to get kids interested in NASA and space exploration while also teaching them how to process complex emotions like fear and loyalty.
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