In the current study, we explore the endeavours to encourage and develop children’s reading in a case where a robot becomes a node within the traditional welfare system where public libraries, tech corporations, children, and books meet. Although the robot is designed as a care robot that can help children who struggle with reading, this is the task that the robot might be least equipped to do. However, when the robot fails, the unintended consequences result in fortunate strokes of serendipity. We study how failure, here as an effect of care, sociotechnical imaginaries, and power relations, can be a productive way of examining the ideals and imaginaries surrounding reading and robots and the possibility of finding unexpected forms of resistance