Meet Resilience, a Mars rover determined to live up to his name.(goodreads summary)
Resilience (Res) is a robot that was built for a mission. He is learning about his anticipated journey to Mars as he collects and processes information from the NASA Scientists. After landing on Mars he will explore the planet, take samples, send back photos and locate a missing Rover named Courage. It is very important that Res finds Courage so he can bring it back online to retrieve its collected data. But in the meantime, Res is also learning about human emotions and storing that information into his system as well. But having human-like feelings is not suppose to be a part of Resilience's mission or a part of being a robot. Res is determined to live up to his name and make his humans proud of him by completing his mission and being the first robot to return to Earth.
This is definitely one of my favorite books that I have read this year! The story is told in alternating viewpoints between Resilience and a 12 year old girl named Sophie. Sophie is the daughter of Rania who is one of the Scientists that created Res. She writes letters to him while he is on Mars and the time spans over 21 years. Res will never know about the letters but they are an important part of Sophie's character. As Res navigates the Red Planet, he runs into many obstacles and adventures where his emotions and human-like feelings take hold. His interactions with Fly, a drone along for the mission and Guardian, an orbiting satellite, have humor and tender moments of friendship that I forgot they were machines. I found myself wanting to keep reading his adventure as Res meets danger and many perils during his exploration. He problem solves sometimes without the command center sending information making him seem to be thinking on his own. The author did a wonderful job giving Res emotion, feelings and a unique personality that you can't help but fall in love with. At one point he questions his purpose and existence and I felt the sadness. This is what great writing does and how it gives us that certain connection to our reading. This would have been a great summer read to my kids when they were younger. They would have loved the concept of the book! It is a beautiful middle grade story about strength, hope, perseverance, friendship, love, family and of course, outer space and the exploration of Mars. I think this is a "just right book" for ages 9-12.~
Title: A Rover's Story
Author: Jasmine Warga
Pub. date: October 2022, Balzer & Bray
Genre: fiction, middle grade
Hardcover, 294 pgs
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