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Oasis
JieJie and her little brother, DiDi, are living on their own in a barren desert while their mother works tirelessly to earn their admission into Oasis City. Their days are filled with weathering sandstorms and scavenging for water, but everything changes when they come across an AI-powered robot lying dormant in an abandoned junkyard.
Filled with equal parts hope and suspense, Oasis tells the story of a potentially not-so-distant future that you won’t ever forget.
Filled with equal parts hope and suspense, Oasis tells the story of a potentially not-so-distant future that you won’t ever forget.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published February 18, 2025
1 person is currently reading
216 people want to read
About the author
Guojing
7books100followersGuojing (Jing Guo) is an illustrator and concept artist. Previously she worked in the game and animation industry. She is now a professional illustrator. Her wordless picture book, ‘The Only Child�, a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of 2015, and a Publishers Weekly Book of 2015, is published by Schwartz and Wade (Random House, Dec, 2015). The story is based on her own experiences as a child. Guojing is also planning her next picture book. She also likes to paint in oils in her spare time. She loves to share her ideas and feelings through her art work.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
February 22, 2025
As our lives are increasingly swallowed up by the demands of labor, families find themselves spending more time with their technology than each other. Oasis, a bittersweet and gorgeously illustrated graphic novel from Guojing, finds siblings JieJie and DiDi spending their days in a barren wasteland of a desert braving sandstorms to find water and travel to a payphone booth for a daily chat with their mother. Their mother works in the nearby city and cannot yet afford admission to the city for her children, but when the siblings stumble upon a discarded AI robot they may have found a replacement mother to care for them. With breathtaking art that further crafts a heavy atmosphere of loneliness and frustration punctuated by tenderness, Guojing harnesses a whole slew of modern anxieties around labor, technology, family, financial stability and meeting basic needs into a succinctly haunting sci-fi fable. A beautifully heart wrenching tale that can be equally enjoyable and poignant for readers of any age, Oasis is a quiet little gem.
Oasis managed to really move me in a short space of time. The art is breathtaking and Guojing is able to instill so much life into the two siblings that you can immediately empathize with them. They are so cute and care for each other while having to survive alone in a desert.
While the recent adaptation of retaining it freshly in cultural memory may garner a few passing comparisons, Oasis feels rather original in its simplicity. The children find a destroyed AI, fix it, and program it to be their mother. While the older sibling is apprehensive, the AI Mom quickly wins them over and truly does take care of them.
Yet when the mother returns, she is initially horrified to find herself replaced by an AI that isn’t actually a mother with real emotions. It nudges our increasing social reliance on technology and the aide of AI, with AIs being able to mimic human interactions and people even turning to AI for companionship (the internet is about people dating an AI), and how the absence of the mother has pushed the children closer to the AI. The AI Mom fills a need and instill hope in the children, real authentic hope and real feelings of closeness. The story, for how short it is, does a good job of addressing this nuance.
�May we all be blessed with long life. Though we are far apart�
…we are still able to share the moonlight together.�
Something Oasis does best, however, is capture the plight of parenting and the struggles to find financial footing even with a full time job. The percentage of stay-at-home parents has over the past two generations while the percentage of parents feeling financially secure despite having a full-time job has plummeted. And the cost of daycare almost negates having a part time job in order to pay for daycare. Oasis looks at the anxieties over how, despite greater technology to assist us, people are finding they are working more, longer, or struggling to find jobs they enjoy. In Oasis, the mother works around the clock �like a robot� in a blue-collar job that looks like something out of the film to uphold the city now mostly run by AI robots yet still cannot afford to bring her kids to come stay in the city with her.
There is a moment near the end where she crumbles under the duress of having to always miss her children in order to work while still never having enough money. �I wish we could survive without money�, she says. While Oasis is a beautiful yet heartbreaking slice of life story, it does end on a note of hope and optimism that really ties the whole thing together gorgeously. A lovely little story with great artwork, I really enjoyed Oasis.
4.5/5
Oasis managed to really move me in a short space of time. The art is breathtaking and Guojing is able to instill so much life into the two siblings that you can immediately empathize with them. They are so cute and care for each other while having to survive alone in a desert.
While the recent adaptation of retaining it freshly in cultural memory may garner a few passing comparisons, Oasis feels rather original in its simplicity. The children find a destroyed AI, fix it, and program it to be their mother. While the older sibling is apprehensive, the AI Mom quickly wins them over and truly does take care of them.
Yet when the mother returns, she is initially horrified to find herself replaced by an AI that isn’t actually a mother with real emotions. It nudges our increasing social reliance on technology and the aide of AI, with AIs being able to mimic human interactions and people even turning to AI for companionship (the internet is about people dating an AI), and how the absence of the mother has pushed the children closer to the AI. The AI Mom fills a need and instill hope in the children, real authentic hope and real feelings of closeness. The story, for how short it is, does a good job of addressing this nuance.
�May we all be blessed with long life. Though we are far apart�
…we are still able to share the moonlight together.�
Something Oasis does best, however, is capture the plight of parenting and the struggles to find financial footing even with a full time job. The percentage of stay-at-home parents has over the past two generations while the percentage of parents feeling financially secure despite having a full-time job has plummeted. And the cost of daycare almost negates having a part time job in order to pay for daycare. Oasis looks at the anxieties over how, despite greater technology to assist us, people are finding they are working more, longer, or struggling to find jobs they enjoy. In Oasis, the mother works around the clock �like a robot� in a blue-collar job that looks like something out of the film to uphold the city now mostly run by AI robots yet still cannot afford to bring her kids to come stay in the city with her.
There is a moment near the end where she crumbles under the duress of having to always miss her children in order to work while still never having enough money. �I wish we could survive without money�, she says. While Oasis is a beautiful yet heartbreaking slice of life story, it does end on a note of hope and optimism that really ties the whole thing together gorgeously. A lovely little story with great artwork, I really enjoyed Oasis.
4.5/5
February 20, 2025
This is so flipping beautiful and since as an adult I’ve fallen in love with robots due to the work of Jasmine Warga, Jarrett Lerner, and Peter Brown, I had to pick it up. This STUNNING graphic novel is set in a hopefully very distant future and it follows siblings who live alone in a desert while their mother works in “the city� to keep them all alive. When the kids find a robot in pieces, they bring it to life and find themselves with hope and comfort they’d once thought was lost.
January 29, 2025
In a dystopian future ruled by robots, humans are the workforce required to keep society moving forward. Unfortunately for one family, two children are left behind in the desert while their mother desperately works to provide for them. One day, the children discover a discarded robot in a scrap heap and they manage to return the machine to functionality, activating a program that turns the AI into a surrogate mother. When the human mother returns to care for her children, two previously disparate paths must unite for their blended family to survive. This thought-provoking graphic novel incorporates limited text and few colors to illustrate the world of Oasis and the land and people the elevated community abandoned. Emotional imagery connects readers to the complexity of the children’s existence, especially as they manage each day without an adult caregiver. The existential conflict between the human and the AI mothers is palpable in the story, and while the ultimate connection between the mothers is predictable, it is also endearing. Accessible to an elementary school-aged audience, this book investigates substantial subject matter primarily through illustrations, which offers a wide range of readers the ability to connect with the narrative. Fans of sci-fi and dystopian fiction will appreciate the approach of this story, and the plot will inspire young people to consider a potential future wherein artificial intelligence has the upper hand. Thoughtful and visually stunning, this is an enjoyable addition to graphic novel collections for upper elementary school-aged readers.
October 23, 2024
JieJie and DiDi live in a harsh desert, navigating sandstorms and making due with limited resources. In order to pay for their passage to Oasis City, JieJie and Didi’s mother is constantly working, leaving the siblings to fend for themselves. When a fox steals some of the children’s water reserves, they end up chasing it into a junkyard of Oasis City trash. Lying among the garbage is a humanoid robot, powered by AI. After some tinkering, JieJie manages to restore the robot, and the added company brings a great change to the children’s lives.
Guojing’s illustrations are beautiful, stark in black and white but soft with texture and round-faced characters. JieJie is a sweet and thoughtful older sibling, shouldering the responsibilities of caring for DiDi and reassuring him of their mother’s return. As the AI replicates the role of a mother, the burden the young girl carries is made even more apparent once she is able to let go and be taken care of. By contrast, once we glimpse the life of the mother working in Oasis City, a new layer is added to the role of AI robots and the humans that create them. This story is sad and bleak at times, but the hopeful solution at the end was satisfying and took me by surprise. An interesting tale at a time when AI is becoming ever more present in our own lives, I appreciated the nuance of the relationships between this little family and the robot that became a part of it.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the digital ARC!
Guojing’s illustrations are beautiful, stark in black and white but soft with texture and round-faced characters. JieJie is a sweet and thoughtful older sibling, shouldering the responsibilities of caring for DiDi and reassuring him of their mother’s return. As the AI replicates the role of a mother, the burden the young girl carries is made even more apparent once she is able to let go and be taken care of. By contrast, once we glimpse the life of the mother working in Oasis City, a new layer is added to the role of AI robots and the humans that create them. This story is sad and bleak at times, but the hopeful solution at the end was satisfying and took me by surprise. An interesting tale at a time when AI is becoming ever more present in our own lives, I appreciated the nuance of the relationships between this little family and the robot that became a part of it.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the digital ARC!
January 6, 2025
In Oasis two kids live in the middle of the desert while their Mom works in the city of Oasis, hoping to earn enough to buy the kids passes into the city. They exist on packaged food, water they must trek through the sand dunes to find, and weekly phone calls from Mom. One day they find an AI robot in the junkyard and when they turn it on their lives change.
Wow, this was an emotional read. The imagery is dark, and sad, and beautiful. The author and artist do such a good job of pulling the feelings out of you and your heart just aches for the kids. The introduction of the AI robot, who becomes a surrogate mother for the kids, also starts the introduction of color and hope into the story. Just well done overall.
Thank you Net Galley for the ARC
Wow, this was an emotional read. The imagery is dark, and sad, and beautiful. The author and artist do such a good job of pulling the feelings out of you and your heart just aches for the kids. The introduction of the AI robot, who becomes a surrogate mother for the kids, also starts the introduction of color and hope into the story. Just well done overall.
Thank you Net Galley for the ARC
November 1, 2024
This story is super sweet and has beautiful artwork. Jiejie and DiDi created a good example of how it can be difficult when there is a single parent household and the parent must work frequently. I also love that their mother's hesitation to trusting the robot. It made for a sweet heartwarming read about family.
March 11, 2025
What did you like about the book? Stuck in the middle of an inhospitable desert outside Oasis City, JieJie and her little brother DiDi eke out a kind of life, communicating with their mom on daily treks to a old phone booth while dreaming of being reunited for the Moon Festival. Their ingenious adaptations to their harsh surroundings fill the first third of the novel as we watch them devote every ounce of their energy to retrieving water and preparing their meager meals. On Didi’s birthday, they can’t reach Mom, but then find a lithe, broken android in a slag pile of Oasis trash. Astonishingly, they manage to repair and activate the unit. Now in Mom mode, the droid tenderly assumes the children’s care, offering comfort, warmth, and bedtime stories. Frantic at being unable to reach her children, JieJie and Didi’s human mom returns, setting off a short-lived conflict before the little family can finally reach a new and loving equilibrium. It’s only in the second half of this astonishing novel that we see inside Oasis City (“a paradise with the purest air and water�), in which the human mom “works hard. She works like a robot.� The final pages offer a sliver of hope as the mom and her android counterpart create a modest but independent life, complete with emerging bits of greenery, which may eventually compete with the arid sand.
Throughout the story, the characters communicate economically through simple speech using talk bubbles. Much is left to conjecture (what’s happened to the Earth, why the children are separated from their mother, who controls the planet) but Giojing’s astonishing artwork will help even young readers make sense of her dystopian setting. The grey and black color palette (possibly created with charcoal and graphite) and smudgy monochromatic style beautifully conveys the encroaching sandstorms and barren landscapes of the children’s world. Occasional pale accents of color immediately demand our attention: the faint orange “on� light for Mother, the dark blue sky she is able to evoke, or the pale green shoots that she manages to coax from the ground. In a brief author’s note, Guojing lets us know that the book also pays tribute to “left-behind children� in our own world, whose parents must leave to find work in cities or even other countries. Link to complete review:
Throughout the story, the characters communicate economically through simple speech using talk bubbles. Much is left to conjecture (what’s happened to the Earth, why the children are separated from their mother, who controls the planet) but Giojing’s astonishing artwork will help even young readers make sense of her dystopian setting. The grey and black color palette (possibly created with charcoal and graphite) and smudgy monochromatic style beautifully conveys the encroaching sandstorms and barren landscapes of the children’s world. Occasional pale accents of color immediately demand our attention: the faint orange “on� light for Mother, the dark blue sky she is able to evoke, or the pale green shoots that she manages to coax from the ground. In a brief author’s note, Guojing lets us know that the book also pays tribute to “left-behind children� in our own world, whose parents must leave to find work in cities or even other countries. Link to complete review:
February 24, 2025
The illustrations of this book are stunning- I love everything Guojing does.
But- I just couldn't love this book. Maybe it's because I don't understand what the brother and sister were going through. Maybe it's because I just watched Cassandra on Netflix and was spooked by it. Maybe it's because I see so many artists rallying against the dangers of AI.
Try as it might, AI will never ever replace or come close to the companionship and love of a real human being. As AI develops and grows smarter and more capable of predicting things and solving problems, it begins to leave relationships cold and limits human interactions.
I know that this brother and sister were craving a motherly love.
I know it was conveyed that they felt that sort of love from the robot.
The book seemed to imply that if your mother (or any loved one) is unavailable to care and love you, an AI replacement or substitute will get you by.
I have been in the thick of relationship bliss and shattered relationships- relationship shattered by disagreement or distance or even death. As much as I crave those relationships to be restored, there is no robot or machine that could ever replace the love I felt from these individuals.
I'm sorry, but the implication of AI being able to replicate or replace human love ruined the book for me. I hoped for a different ending.
But- I just couldn't love this book. Maybe it's because I don't understand what the brother and sister were going through. Maybe it's because I just watched Cassandra on Netflix and was spooked by it. Maybe it's because I see so many artists rallying against the dangers of AI.
Try as it might, AI will never ever replace or come close to the companionship and love of a real human being. As AI develops and grows smarter and more capable of predicting things and solving problems, it begins to leave relationships cold and limits human interactions.
I know that this brother and sister were craving a motherly love.
I know it was conveyed that they felt that sort of love from the robot.
The book seemed to imply that if your mother (or any loved one) is unavailable to care and love you, an AI replacement or substitute will get you by.
I have been in the thick of relationship bliss and shattered relationships- relationship shattered by disagreement or distance or even death. As much as I crave those relationships to be restored, there is no robot or machine that could ever replace the love I felt from these individuals.
I'm sorry, but the implication of AI being able to replicate or replace human love ruined the book for me. I hoped for a different ending.
February 1, 2025
👦🏻reviews: Have you watched the movie “The Wild Robot�? A bit similar to this book. This is such an astonishing graphic novel about Ai and two siblings living in the desert while their mother works outside in the city of Oasis. I know that things like this do happen in other countries where young kids fend to themselves while their parents temporarily move to outskirts to work. This graphic novel has so many emotional moments and coming of age. Jie-jie and Didi are amazing characters while the author made them human-like packed with beautiful emotions. We all have different opinions when it comes to Ai-powered robot and I think in this book it has served as an important and interesting piece to the story. The illustrations and the black-white colors have brought mystery and drama to the reader. I think this is one amazing graphic novel.
March 15, 2025
Reminiscent of Shaun Tan's illustrated series, the pencil sketch of this futuristic world is engrossing. From the start you're pulled in to understand how this girl and her sibling are handling life, essentially alone, trekking in this sandstorm to a phone booth to await a call from their mother, get water from a handpump, and return home to a meager existence. They both want the return of their mother who is working hard but a reader doesn't really understand what this world is like or if the mother really is around.
Enter a robot they stumble upon and awaken, asking it to be their mother as a substitute because their real mother isn't around. This sentimental journey sees the return of the real mother and the emotions that come with it when she sees this AI mother robot. Then reality sets in.
Minimalistic with an omnipresent setting and mood makes it phenomenal.
Enter a robot they stumble upon and awaken, asking it to be their mother as a substitute because their real mother isn't around. This sentimental journey sees the return of the real mother and the emotions that come with it when she sees this AI mother robot. Then reality sets in.
Minimalistic with an omnipresent setting and mood makes it phenomenal.
April 6, 2025
In OASIS, JieJie and Didi are living a bleak existence in a dystopian future. They often wait at an isolated phone booth for a call from their mother, who has left them behind for work at a factory in the city of Oasis in hopes of earning enough to bring the children to the city with her. While poking around in a junkyard after a disappointing day, the children find a broken robot and take it home. This find will change their lives in ways they never could have expected.
The graphic novel’s beautiful illustrations inform and contribute to the mood of the story, bringing warmth to the desolate landscape that serves as the background for events. A timely tale about AI, the story is a statement about survival in the face of challenge and the enduring power of families and love with a satisfying conclusion.
The graphic novel’s beautiful illustrations inform and contribute to the mood of the story, bringing warmth to the desolate landscape that serves as the background for events. A timely tale about AI, the story is a statement about survival in the face of challenge and the enduring power of families and love with a satisfying conclusion.
March 21, 2025
Siblings JieJie and Didi live in the desert far outside Oasis city where there mom works long hours in a factory, trying to earn enough money for their admission to the city, too. The two struggle to find food and water and talk occasionally to mom on a pay phone. Then they find an abandoned AI robot, fix it, and put it in mother mode. It becomes a surrogate mother to them. When mom is able to get away and discovers this, she is horrified.
Illustrations are in somber grays and browns, absolutely suited to the tone of the story. Pencil strokes give beautiful detail to the faces and the setting and fade out at the edges. This would be perfect for a book club discussion about AI and its role in modern life.
Illustrations are in somber grays and browns, absolutely suited to the tone of the story. Pencil strokes give beautiful detail to the faces and the setting and fade out at the edges. This would be perfect for a book club discussion about AI and its role in modern life.
November 18, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I feel totally justified in calling Guojing a genius. I have been a fan of hers since I read her wordless picture book Stormy. Her ability to display emotion on her characters' faces without using words, is truly remarkable and this book is no different. Even though there are a few words in Oasis, the story is primarily told through the details of the illustrations, and it is amazing how much the reader begins to feel for AI Mom. I felt the book came to a satisfying conclusion and I would readily read anything else Guojing publishes.
I feel totally justified in calling Guojing a genius. I have been a fan of hers since I read her wordless picture book Stormy. Her ability to display emotion on her characters' faces without using words, is truly remarkable and this book is no different. Even though there are a few words in Oasis, the story is primarily told through the details of the illustrations, and it is amazing how much the reader begins to feel for AI Mom. I felt the book came to a satisfying conclusion and I would readily read anything else Guojing publishes.
March 8, 2025
This dystopian GN for kids reminds me of the Wild Robot. A disassembled robot becomes reassembled and then bonds with a pair of kids that are raising themselves because their mom is off making robots, ironically. I believe that kids younger than 5th grade might not comprehend all the levels of this book. The illustrations are super dark and bleak. It reminds me of the Dune background-all desert and desolate. The characters are Asian, so supposedly the background is western China. There is a heart-warming ending.
January 28, 2025
The art in Oasis is very nice. The characters look friendly and cute, but the setting is gloomy and ominous, as it should be. The idea of a futuristic city run by robots felt like it ought to have a bit more explanation since that technology is then used in the plot. However, the story remains fairly simple, so the lack of technological explanation isn't as glaring. It was a quick read with a partially sastifying ending.
February 25, 2025
In a bleak desert world two children survive together. Every week they travel to a nearby phone booth for a call from their mother--who works in a nearby city. One day they find an abandoned robot and repair her, and in her find the mother they are so badly missing. There is a kind of Iron Giant vibe in this one. Beautiful art and a lovely, hopeful story.
April 1, 2025
This story is packed with emotion and feels just like watching a movie. At first, it seems like the AI robot is taking over the mother’s role, but later, it feels like it might actually become the missing father figure, bringing the whole family together and making them complete and happy. A truly beautiful and heartwarming story with beautiful pictures.
February 8, 2025
This was such a moving book. You could really feel the kid's love for their mom through the pages. I also really enjoyed the art style. It's so soft and the limited color palate really lends itself to the desolate environment.
March 15, 2025
Not quite sure how to feel about this one. I’ll probably have to mull it over for a few days before my mind is settled on it. The art is nice, but a bit hard to see with this color palette (intentionally?). The story is minimal; it’s more about vibes tbh.
April 10, 2025
Kinda strange to me that the kids would ask for a mother when they already have one they love (even if she is mostly absent); you'd think they'd ask for a father, since they don't seem to have one of those in their lives.
Either way, the art is lovely.
Either way, the art is lovely.
January 31, 2025
Guojing's illustration style radiates with feeling in this dystopian family tale of two siblings that are taken in and cared for by a robot.
February 4, 2025
3.5 stars rounded up.
Arc from Netgalley.
Arc from Netgalley.
February 27, 2025
Such a beautiful book
March 27, 2025
I enjoyed this one but it was just too short. Nothing felt like it was fleshed out enough.
March 28, 2025
Not too sure what I just read? A human AI WLW dystopian tale? Good for them!
March 28, 2025
3.75 stars.
April 7, 2025
4/7/25 this one got me a little choked up
March 20, 2025
I loved this book. And I had tears reading the ending. It is a beautiful story about mothers and the love and longing of moms and children, for their moms and their children. The robot that becomes the mother is an interesting twist on the robot, that is typically portrayed a a 'danger' in stories. Not so here. This graphic novel turns that trope on its head. In the true fashion of George Orwell, it is the humans and ideology who are the real danger. The story creates great characters with the children, adds in suspense and builds up the robot mom role in a very believable manner. The graphics are mesmerizing to me. I LOVE black and white illustrations and this includes sepia colors, all rendered so expressively. I believe this book is for both children and adults as it has levels to its story and its meaning.
March 30, 2025
This review is based on an ARC.
Wow. This is a compelling look into an otherwise unspoken topic in our societies. I loved the haunting world and themes. It blends AI with an age-old conversation around working abroad parents. My family has a personal connection to this topic and it was a touching work to discuss our family history. It's a beautiful read.
Wow. This is a compelling look into an otherwise unspoken topic in our societies. I loved the haunting world and themes. It blends AI with an age-old conversation around working abroad parents. My family has a personal connection to this topic and it was a touching work to discuss our family history. It's a beautiful read.
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