Guide · Robots
Books like The Wild Robot
Steve DressingUpdated
The best books like The Wild Robot have a machine with feelings or a kid surviving in the wild. Start with the two sequels. Then try A Rover's Story or Cog for robots, A Wolf Called Wander or My Side of the Mountain for the wild, and Robot Dreams for a graphic novel. All 11 picks are below, each with its age range.
The Wild Robot is about a machine learning to live in the natural world. Every book below has a robot or machine with feelings, or a kid or animal surviving in the wild. I wrote one of them, a space novel with companion robots, and it's marked. The rest are by other authors, and the age range on each card comes from the publisher or a bookseller. For more science fiction, see space books for girls 10 to 14.
If your kid hasn't read the sequels, start there. Peter Brown has written two more novels, The Wild Robot Escapes (2018) and The Wild Robot Protects (2023), both listed for 8 to 12.
Quick picks
- Wants another robot story: A Rover's Story, ages 8–12
- Wants a robot on a quest: Cog, ages 8–12
- Reads graphic novels: Robot Dreams, ages 8–12
- Loved the animals: A Wolf Called Wander, ages 8–12
- Wants a classic survival story: My Side of the Mountain, ages 8–12
- Younger brother or sister: The Iron Giant, ages 6–9
Robots and machines with a heart
Five books where a machine starts to feel something, or a kid makes friends with one.
FIC
WAR
A Rover's Story
Res is a Mars rover who starts to have feelings while NASA scientists are building him. On Mars, he and a drone helicopter named Fly face dust storms and giant cliffs.
Kirkus lists it for 9 to 13. Late in the book, a character fears her mother may die of an illness.
FIC
VAN
Cog
Cog is a robot built to learn. After an accident he wakes up in a strange lab, and the scientist who raised him is missing, so he and four other robots set out to find her.
There's some peril: the lab's scientists plan to take out Cog's brain.
FIC
SEL
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Orphaned Hugo lives hidden in the walls of a Paris train station, keeping a mechanical man his father found. His life changes when he meets a girl who loves books and a bitter old toy seller.
It won the 2008 Caldecott Medal. It runs more than 500 pages, with much of the story told in drawings. Hugo's father has died in a fire, and Hugo steals to get by.
741.5
VAR
Robot Dreams
Dog and Robot are best friends until a trip to the beach leaves Robot rusted in place and Dog goes home alone. The book follows them both through the seasons.
It has no words. The ending is bittersweet. Kirkus lists it for 8 to 14.
FIC
HUG
The Iron Giant
A metal giant appears and starts eating farm machinery. A boy named Hogarth finds him a safe home, and later the giant helps when a monster from space threatens Earth.
In the UK it's called The Iron Man. It's 96 pages and listed for 6 to 9, so it suits a younger brother or sister, or a read-aloud.
My book belongs here for a reader at the older end. In A Complicated Journey, Colleen Freeman is a young genius training for a mission to new planets. When a large object starts heading toward Earth, she and her companion robots have to save the planet first. It's written for 10 to 14, a little older than The Wild Robot.
Steve wrote this one
A Complicated Journey
Colleen Freeman is training to visit planets that might hold life. Then something enormous starts heading for Earth.
Novel · Ages 10–14 · By Steve Dressing
Animals and life in the wild
Five books about animals, survival and the natural world, the other half of Roz's story.
FIC
PAR
A Wolf Called Wander
After a rival pack scatters his family, a young wolf named Swift travels about 1,000 miles across the Pacific Northwest to find a new home. It's based on a real wolf known as OR-7.
Swift's father is killed in the attack, and there are hunters and a forest fire along the way.
FIC
GEO
My Side of the Mountain
Twelve-year-old Sam Gribley leaves his family's crowded New York City apartment to live alone on his grandfather's abandoned farm in the Catskill Mountains, with a penknife, a ball of cord, flint and steel, and $40.
A 1960 Newbery Honor book. Sam traps and hunts animals for food, and a falcon becomes his companion.
FIC
PEN
Pax
When his father goes off to war, Peter is made to leave his pet fox, Pax, by the side of the road and is sent 300 miles away. Peter sets out alone to find him, while Pax waits and has adventures of his own.
War is the backdrop, animals are killed by landmines, and Peter's mother has died before the story starts. Kirkus lists it for 9 to 13.
FIC
APP
The One and Only Ivan
Ivan, a gorilla who has lived 27 years in an enclosure at a shopping mall, sees his life differently after a baby elephant named Ruby arrives.
It won the 2013 Newbery Medal. An elephant dies for lack of care, and the animals' capture from the wild is part of the story.
FIC
APP
Wishtree
Red is an old oak that the neighborhood ties its wishes to. Red, a crow named Bongo and the animals who live in the tree watch over a new family that not everyone welcomes.
Some neighbors are hostile to the family, who are Muslim, and someone carves "Leave" into the tree.
Questions parents ask
What should my kid read after The Wild Robot?
Start with the sequels, The Wild Robot Escapes and The Wild Robot Protects. After that, A Rover's Story and Cog are robot novels for the same ages, 8 to 12.
Are there graphic novels like The Wild Robot?
Robot Dreams is a wordless graphic novel about a dog and a robot, listed for 8 to 12. The Invention of Hugo Cabret tells much of its story in drawings.
What's like The Wild Robot for a younger kid?
The Iron Giant is listed for 6 to 9 and runs 96 pages. Peter Brown also made a picture-book version of the first story, The Wild Robot on the Island, which Hachette lists for 4 to 8.
What's like The Wild Robot for a 12 year old?
A Complicated Journey is written for 10 to 14 and has a young scientist and her companion robots. For an animal story, Pax is listed for 8 to 12, and Kirkus puts it at 9 to 13.
Where can I find these books?
Each title above links to its publisher or an independent bookseller. Most libraries carry them too. A Complicated Journey ships from this site.
