When several members of the ring soon turn up dead, Billy abruptly pulls Kate out, blowing her cover. For some the myriad descriptions about how submarines work and information about currents and navigation may be a bit much. It was wonderful to revisit Sami and his friends and family, but equally enraging to encounter the sadly realistic bullying.

As much as it had many elements I love - robots, friendship, oddballs, metaphors for consumerism - it just didn't grab me, no matter how hard I tried. Buchheim does ramble on in regards the overall environment - from squalid living conditions to the effects boredom had on the men - but this only escalates further just what life was really like on a U-boat trapped out at sea -zero excitement and adventure. The memories, though, make him feel like he needs to find his owner, Beth and find out what happened to him, to them. The book was the basis of the 1981 West German war film Das Boot, written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann.He’s also one to whom a lot of children are likely to relate, as he struggles to make sense of the ways of the world and his own emotions.

The author did a fantastic job of giving a detailed blow-by-blow of daily life under a variety of circumstances from attack to counterattack, from calm seas to storms, from departure to arrival.

Boot, Noke and Red set off to get help from Tag, who works at the funfair, but Flint appears looking angry. When toy robot, Boot, wakes up at a scrapyard, it has no idea how it got there and why it isn't with its owner, Beth. A fast-paced page turner with a big heart, and positive message that if you stand together even the worst bullies can be vanquished”. With short chapters and line drawings, Boot was an easy read and in an age where people want the newest most up to date phones and gadgets it made me think about how easily we throw things away, Boot had me giggling and crying. But being a lost robot is a dangerous thing to be in a big, scary city and finding Beth is going to prove tricky.