Robot Girl by Malorie Blackman

9/10

Young boys can be curious about what their dads do, but so can girls. Claire's dad works in his lab, and she has a secret desire to find out what he is getting up to. All she knows is that he has a new project he's been excited about for ages and spends most of his time in his lab. The problem arises when she discovers he has made a person who looks human, but is entirely artificial.

Malorie Blackman is a national treasure and current Children's Laureate who has penned over 50 books, her Naughts and Crosses trilogy becoming an award winning series. She has been awarded the Eleanor Farjeaon Award for her contribution to Children's books plus The Red House Children's Book Award and the WHSmith Award. She has also been nominated for the Carnegie Medal.

Robot Girl asks the question of humanity and why humans are the way they are. Claire will ask all these burning questions in order to find out why her father would create an artificial human. What is it like to never feel, have greater strength and an amazing mental capacity. The whole point of the story is that readers will be able to answer those questions themselves by the time they have got to the end.

Claire's dad has been working on the project for a year and no one else has been allowed into his lab to find out what it is. The day he unveils it, Claire is filled with a sense of horror, but as her father explains the process of making his robot girl, AI-E, almost human in thought and action, she discovers AI-E has been modelled on her. Rather than appreciating what her father has done, she seethes inside, thinking that what he has done has been a betrayal of her. Later in the year, Clare had a breakthrough, finding an on-line pal to talk to as the kids at school think she is stuck up, but she is really shy. Masie is the kind of girl who she finds she can talk to who will understand her even though they are miles apart.

Once readers have got to read through to the end they will realise at once what the twist is at the end. For the most part of the year, Claire has grown tired of how distant her father has become and waits for the time when they can be a real family together. Claire's mum always sides with her dad when she tries to discuss things with her, so she sees Masie as a welcome distraction as she thinks she is the only one who she can trust.

In Robot Girl, Claire and Masie could be the best of friends even if her mum and dad don't seem to fully understand her yet.

Malorie Blackman has done a great job of convincing the reader that her father should not have created a robot to look and act like his daughter, yet there is also the problem of whether a daughter who has no idea what kind of effort her father has put into a year's worth of work as a project should be able to dictate to him. Barrington Stoke has got a real treasure in Malorie Blackman.