Rabbit & Robot

Smith, A. (2018). Rabbit & Robot. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Summary:

In the future, the Earth is engaged in 27 wars and counting. Cager Messer, son of the man behind the popular show Rabbit and Robot, is addicted to a drug called Woz. His best friend, the son of another inventor, decides to help Cager detox with the help of Cager’s caretaker, Rowan. This leads the trio to the Tennessee, a lunar luxury cruise liner. The ship is full of cogs, machines, that suddenly turn cannibalistic. And the Earth burns beneath them. What will they do if they’re the last three survivors of Earth, doomed to live on this spaceship?  

Reaction:

Did Andrew Smith drop some acid and then write down everything that came to mind? Because that’s what it feels like. The cover just adds to the sense that the reader is in the middle of an acid trip. On the plus side, despite its ridiculousness, this book is a stellar improvement from Grasshopper Jungle which is even more absurd than this gem.

Set in the future, Cager Messer is addicted to Woz. Woz is a drug given to school age children so they can focus in order to become either a “bonk” or coder. Bonks are basically soldiers and coders are responsible for creating cogs, A.I. machines. Woz also helps them calm down when watching a television program, Rabbit & Robot which is about a bonk and cog. The number of soldiers being produced is needed because the world is currently in the middle of 27 wars and counting.

Cager and his best friend, Billy Hinman, are children of the elite. They don’t go to school. Their parents pay people to be their friends. Cager’s father produces Rabbit & Robot and has a line of lunar cruise ships that are mostly used for dropping the dead off on the moon, and Billy’s dad is responsible for the production of cogs. Since they never went to school, they didn’t need to take Woz, but that didn’t stop Cager. In an attempt to help Cager with his addiction, Billy Hinman faces his own fears of flying to get them onto the newest luxury cruiser, the Tennessee. Rown, Cager’s caregiver, joins them.

There is a lot of repetition in this book. Cager doesn’t refer to Billy Hinman as just Billy. He uses his full name the majority of the time. Many phrases are uttered multiple times. The cogs, especially the enraged ones, are constantly repeating the same phrases. “I am the victim! You are not the victim! You are victimizing me by acting like you’re the victim, when the victim is ME!” (pg 169). One of Cager’s own favorite words is “Whatever.”

Eventually Cager and Billy run into Meg and Jeffrie, two stowaways on the ship. Meg is a coder and Jeffrie is an arsonist, referred to as a burner on Earth. Cager is relieved to find two more human beings. Before officially meeting them though, he can smell them. Somehow Cager has a super sense of smell. There doesn’t seem to be a purpose to it like a lot of the events in the book.  

Explaining this novel to another person is difficult. And once you get used to the events of the book, a wrench is thrown in. Queen Dot and her son for example. Suddenly there are blue aliens that are liquid and can chose any form. It turns out the human race has Queen Dot to thank for tacos. And her husband to thank for existing.

The reason for Queen Dot’s visit? The earth has been destroyed, and she wants to make sure the cogs are destroyed as well. “‘You made machines that can make better machines and code themselves. This is cosmically prohibited by edict. We had to come back and fortunately for us you human beings have destroyed your planet, and by doing so have spared us the chore.” (pg 291). They have infected the machines with a worm that makes the cogs cannibalistic toward their own kind. She decides not to destroy the Tennessee because of the “incredible” tacos.

The end of the novel has Cager returning to the planet they once called home with Billy, Meg, and Jeffrie. “Lifeboats” were added to the spaceship. The transport pods will take them back to the Mojave Desert. Or what is left of it. This book he has written has been his attempt at recording his experience for any future beings to stumble upon.

“That’s really what all books are, isn’t it? I mean, lists of secrets and things you only wish you’d done - a sort of deathbed confession where you’re trying to get it all out while the lights are still on.” (pg 20)

Connections:

Activities

• Design the lunar spaceship cruise liner, the Tennessee. Or students can create their own spaceship cruise liner. Create a blueprint.
• Now that you have created a blueprint of your spaceship cruise liner, this is your home. You can no longer return to Earth because it has been destroyed. How do you feel? What do you do?
• Prompt: What would happen if you learned you were one of the last three living humans?
• Write a list of things you’ve never done but want to do. This is also called a bucket list.
• Why do you think the cogs were given the traits they were given? Horny, Rage, Elation, Sorrowful. Know-it-all.
• Prompt: What traits distinguish a living thing from a nonliving thing?  
• Simon and Schuster provide discussion questions (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Rabbit-Robot/Andrew-Smith/9781534422209) that can be used while reading the novel.