By Frank Cottrell-Boyce (author) , Steven Lenton (illustrator)
"Robot adventure with real heart, by the inimitable Frank Cottrell-Boyce"
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Longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2020 | May 2019 Book of the Month
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.
Alfie is off school after an accident in which he lost both his hand and his confidence. He's lonely all day on his own. So when he comes across Eric, a one-legged robot in need of a friend, he brings him home with him.
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But a ban on humanoid robots has just been passed, which means Alfie is breaking the law by sheltering Eric. Can he keep his new friend safe - and himself out of trouble?
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
In conversation with Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the new Waterstones Children's Laureate for 2024-26
Award-winning author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce revealed as the new Waterstones Children's Laureate 2024-2026
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Alfie is off school after an accident in which he lost both his hand and his confidence. He's lonely all day on his own.
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed Runaway Robot and determined it is suitable for children aged 9-12 years old
Runaway Robot features in the following genres: Adventure Stories, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Books of the Month, Recommendations, Featured Books for 11+ readers, Featured Books for 9+ readers, Fantasy / Magical
Paperback. £7.19, down from the £7.99 cover price. In Stock.
Runaway Robot was written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce and published by Macmillan Children's Books an imprint of Pan Macmillan
Runaway Robot has 271 pages
£7.19, reduced from £7.99. In Stock.
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