The Runaway Robot

It's no secret that some of the best books are written for kids and teens. Baby Boomers will fondly remember Scholastic Book Services before they were a mainstream publisher, and little four page weekly reader newspapers that were passed out in class. Books cost about 50 cents and you'd order them together as a class. What a great stake in classroom reading, how fun to take home your books from class, and how different than a $30 Harry Potter hardback. And what great books they were: Encyclopedia Brown, The Amazing Adventures of Alvin Fernald (part of which showed up on TV), Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine (predating PCs) are a few that come to mind. The Runaway Robot was a classic among classics, penned by golden age sci-fi author Lester Del Rey, and now collectible for it's space-theme cover. These are only a few of the great books modern librarians cycled out of libraries in their continuing war on the imagination. But until someone reprints gems like these, my advice is order yours used, and discover this long- lost classic. You'll be glad you did.

Having first read this book about 35 years ago, I couldn't wait to introduce my two sons to it. Using the intriguing Jupiter moon and Martian colonies as a sci-fi backdrop, Lester Del Rey spins the timeless classic of a boy and his lifelong companion Rex, a "domestic" robot. Their adventures from the outreaches of space to their final destination--Earth--are frought with peril but their love for one another is the reason for their tireless perserverence. A flawless tale of adventure and freindship. My boys absolutely loved it!

This is not only a child's adventure but a study in character development. As the robot is forced to overreach himself and his circuit design for the sake of the boy who loves him, he becomes a thoughtful, innovative, caring being. This is one of my all-time favorite books thirty years later.

This outer space *Huckeberry Finn* story has remained one of my favorite stories over the past 30 years since I first stumbled across it in the public library. Lester Del Rey has an understanding of androids -- who can recognize their superior qualities, but ultimate inferiority to humans -- that has seldom been equalled. The story of Rex (a robot named like a dog, incidentally) and his teenaged owner's attempt to get from Ganymede to Earth by stowing away, trickery, and "long-term planning" remains exciting, and is worth hunting up!

My brother had this book. He was an avid science fiction fan when we were little. He still is. I guess I got hooked on it from him. Runaway Robot by Lester del Rey, was written in the 1960s. It's about a boy and his robot. The boy, whose name escapes me, is ordered by his father to sell the robot. The robot's old and supposedly unreliable. The boy refuses to have his companion sold "down the river" to a scrap dealer. So they escape and their adventures on Ganymede are all part of the story. This is a good book.