The homework machine

Read by Max Scribner

I recently read the book The Homework Machine, by Dan Gutman. It is written in the form of an interrogation with about four characters. The main character is Sam Dawkins, who thinks that he is the coolest thing to walk the planet, whose father is in the war in Afghanistan. Brenton Damagatchi, a “mutant dork,” from his class shows him the Homework Machine he made that does his homework for him and even copies his handwriting… in pencil. It’s revolutionary! The four characters have different feelings about it. Brenton feels that he would have done his homework perfectly anyway; Sam feels that they should be making money off of it; Judy feels that Brenton cheated because she and Brenton are both top of the class, and she feels like she is competing with him; and Kelsey feels that they should just keep the existence of the machine  to themselves. Since it is a book, as you know something has to go wrong.

When I was reading The Homework Machine it reminded me of the author Rick Riordan who wrote the Lightning Thief  and The Red Pyramid and many more. It has the same level of vocabulary and it portrays the characters and their traits very well. For example, the reader knows that Brenton over-analyzes things when he makes a chart on what people call him that shows that he is getting cooler because people are calling him “dude” more than usual. Weird isn’t it? I think that 6th, 7th and 8th graders will enjoy this book and its sequel.