If I was going to teach a course about nature writing—whether it be for K-12 or a 400-level college course—I'd strongly consider starting the course with this book. The middle-grade genre makes it incredibly approachable for many audiences (even younger kids if reading aloud!), which makes diving deep into Peter Brown's technique all the more easy. Beyond that, The Wild Robot operates on so many levels at once. You can analyze it from a literary-craft perspective, from a youth moral perspective, from a nature philosophy perspective, from a spiritual perspective, and even from perspectives of gender, capitalism, and labor.

Admittedly, I do have quite a few philosophical hairs to split with this book. (The spoiler is a list of a few of my philosophical questions/gripes with the book, using some specific examples.)

Why does the book frame motherhood as an important step on Roz's journey to being "alive" and "human-like"? How does talking about how animals are "clearly designed" for certain tasks imply a specific form of intelligent design? What's lost and gained in how the animals are rendered naturalistically sometimes, but other times (and increasingly further into the book) anthropomorphized? What is being said when Roz makes a home that resembles a suburban single-family home?

But in the end, it still is hair-splitting, and I do broadly appreciate the perspective that Brown wrote into this. If anything, this hair-splitting makes The Wild Robot a book I'm more excited to read in a group sometime. If it were perfect, there wouldn't be as much to learn! I'm incredibly curious to see how this gets adapted into an animated film, especially given that one of Brown's inspirations explicitly was WALL-E.

If you're interested in nature writing, The Wild Robot might be a bit different from your usual read! But if you keep your mind open, you may find the book as rewarding of a read as I have.