Such a funny, warm hearted and exciting book. I’m a big fan of this author and it’s always a pleasure to recommend his books to young readers looking for funny books with a bit more substance to them.

Alfie has had an accident, about which he can remember nothing. He does know that he can't return to school until he can manage to manipulate his new prosthetic hand, fitted at the Limb Lab. This is a world in which robots are present to help humans with many household and other chores. AI controlling lives in useful and humourous ways. Alfie's Mum talks to her cleaning robot and gets robot envy at other more sophisticated devices.
But Alfie is unhappy that other children at the Limb Lab are able to grasp their new limbs when he cannot. So he skips 'classes' and takes himself off to his place of comfort - the Airport. There in lost property he finds Eric - a one legged six foot robot, a leg - but not at the same time, but then loses his own prosthetic hand.

This is a mad adventure to reunite Eric with his leg, Alfie with his hand, whilst saving Eric from the scrap heap all the adults are determined that Eric will be banished to.

Alfie makes friends along the way - human, not all robotic, and manages to uncover memories of his accident. This is a novel for a wide range of readers. It will read well being told to a group, or being read by children themselves. There is plenty of humour, adventure and mystery, and a warm, satisfying ending. The illustrations by Steven Lenton in finished copies are great. Traditional looking robots with personality! The cover attracts and the contents don't disappoint.

** I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Books to review**

I absolutely loved this book! Filled to the brim with Frank Cottrell-Boyce's trademark humour, this book had an excellent protagonist who drove the plot along throughout. Eric is a brilliant character and the timing of a number of his lines had me snorting with laughter. As well as being funny, there are some emotional moments, and I particularly liked the development of the plot as the book neared its conclusion. All in all, I would highly recommend this book!

I really enjoyed reading about Alfie, Eric and the cast of friends from The Limb Lab.
Alfie has been involved in a serious accident, in which he loses his right hand, and most of the memories surrounding the accident.
As you read you discover snippets of memory from the accident and see what Alfie is going through. He has moments of frustration and anger at not being able to control his new hand, or to rid himself of the ghost feeling from his old hand.

Skipping school and The Limb Lab, he heads to the airport and “loses” his hand. In a quest to retrieve it, he finds lost property and finds a giant robotic hand which he discovers belongs to the most polite robot ever. So begins a journey of discovering who Eric is, where he comes from and also a journey in which new memories are surfacing for Alfie.

There are of course twists, turns and surprises along the way. I enjoyed the story and the ending is wonderful!

I think I enjoyed this book all the more for having heard Frank Cottrell-Boyce read from the chapter where Alfie first meets Eric. Listening to how he read it brought it to life and I was keen to carry on myself, I was not disappointed.

Frank Cottrell-Boyce is a master storyteller and his books are hugely successful as they are funny, relatable and honest.

Steven Lenton is a true genius and his illustrations make the characters so real. I am a huge fan on Lenton’s illustrative style!

‘Runaway Robot’ is a children’s comedy adventure novel that reads a bit like David Walliams reworking ‘The Iron Giant’. For the most part, it’s fine, but it’s messily conceived and lack the kind of narrative or imaginative spark that can make books like this great.
It tells the story of Alfie, a young boy with a prosthetic hand, who finds a giant humanoid robot at the Lost Property office at the airport. There follows a predictable enough series of thrills and pratfalls before an emotionally uplifting conclusion. It contains, then, all the elements that you’d expect in a modern kid’s book, and it is, at times, very funny. Unfortunately, good gags aren’t enough to carry it.
Now obviously, I’m far from the target audience for the book. In fact, I’m over 30 years away from being the target audience, but I’ve read enough children’s books with my son to know that plot and characterisation are just as important in children’s literature as they are in books for adults. ‘Runaway Robot’ is fun enough, but nothing in it made me care about what was happening.
The plot (such as it is) left me absolutely cold. It’s full of wild coincidences and a confusing mess of ideas that makes it hard to decide what it’s really about. There’s also an absence of the kind of joyous inventiveness that marks out the best children’s literature, and the fantastic events of the story end up feeling silly rather than wondrous.
All of that might not have killed the book, if the people in it had been more sympathetic. Sadly, even by the standards of current children’s lit-supremo Walliams (who I think is really over-rated), the characters are slight. Cottrell-Boyce doesn’t fall into the same trap of using lazy stereotypes that Walliams does, but his characters don’t live at all. They’re one dimensional and pretty dull.
Ultimately, then, I kept turning the pages just so I could get it finished, rather than because I actually cared about what was happening. It’s target audience might find more to enjoy here, but I’m afraid that aside from a few chuckles I didn’t like it much at all.