Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

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!