Scrap

Guy Bass's Scrap is a funny, big-hearted science fiction adventure for 10 year olds about a rusty old robot who just wants to be left alone.

What happens

On the planet Somewhere 513, the robots were supposed to get everything ready for the humans. Instead they decided to keep the place for themselves, and humans were outlawed. Only one robot fought on the humans' side, a giant called K1-NG, the King of the Robots. Then the humans did something he could never forgive.

Ten years later he's the most battered junk case on the Pile, a mountain of old robot bodies. He has one foot, a rusty dented case and a voice that crackles (-zk-). He's just built himself a little house with a flower bed when two human girls turn up on his doorstep.

Gnat is five and a bit, has a gap where her front tooth was and never stops talking. Her big sister Paige is ten and is sure this heap of rust can't possibly be the King. Their mum built him. She's poorly now, and they need his help.

Gnat names him Scrap, and he hates it. (It sticks.) Before long there's a chase across the planet with a pair of robot hunters close behind.

The humour is brilliant. The hunters, June and Terry, are a sister and brother who are all politeness and jokes one minute and gleefully reaching for grenades the next. Gnat's attempt to pass herself off as a robot ("Beep-boop, don't shoot") is VERY funny. Under the jokes there's real feeling, though, as Scrap slowly starts caring about the girls he's trying so hard to get rid of.

It's worth knowing there's a fair bit of fighting. The backstory is a war between humans and robots, the girls' dad has died, and an early explosion blows Scrap's arm off and leaves one of the hunters in pieces. (They're robots, but it's still quite a moment.) A reader who loves action won't mind, but it isn't a gentle read.

If your reader loves a grumpy loner who gets adopted by a family whether he likes it or not, they'll be rooting for Scrap all the way.

What to read next

For more of Guy Bass at his daftest, No More Mr Nice Spy stars a dinosaur secret agent and his daughter Amber, fighting their way along a runaway train to rescue a very spoilt pug.