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The Homework Machine

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Table of Contents

About the book, about the author.

Dan Gutman hated to read when he was a kid. Then he grew up. Now he writes cool books like The Kid Who Ran for President ; Honus & Me ; The Million Dollar Shot ; Race for the Sky ; and The Edison Mystery: Qwerty Stevens, Back in Time . If you want to learn more about Dan or his books, stop by his website at DanGutman.com.

Product Details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (June 26, 2007)
• Length: 176 pages
• ISBN13: 9780689876790
• Grades: 3 - 7
• Ages: 8 - 12
• Fountas & Pinnell™ R These books have been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System

Browse Related Books

• Age 12 and Up
• Children's Fiction > Social Themes > Adolescence & Coming of Age
• Children's Fiction > Social Situations > Adolescence
• Children's Fiction > School & Education
• Children's Fiction > Humorous Stories

Awards and Honors

• ILA/CBC Children's Choices
• Maud Hart Lovelace Award Nominee (MN)
• Booklist Editors' Choice
• South Carolina Picture Book Award Nominee
• Iowa Children's Choice Award Nominee
• Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee (IN)
• Indian Paintbrush Book Award Nominee (WY)
• Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best
• Nutmeg Book Award Nominee (CT)
• Colorado Children's Book Award Master List
• Child Magazine's Guide to Top Books, Videos and Software of the Year
• Pacific Northwest Young Reader's Choice Award Master List
• Volunteer State Book Award Nominee (TN)
• Virginia Readers' Choice Award List
• Prairie Pasque Award Nominee (SD)
• Land of Enchantment RoadRunner Award Nominee (NM)
• Nene Award Nominee (HI)
• Sunshine State Young Readers' Award List (FL)
• Massachusetts Children's Book Award Nominee
• Golden Sower Award (NE)
• Sasquatch Book Award Nominee (WA)

Resources and Downloads

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• Book Cover Image (jpg): The Homework Machine Trade Paperback 9780689876790 (2.4 MB)

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The Homework Machine

Starting with a stern statement from the Grand Canyon, Arizona Police Chief Rebecca Fish, meet four fifth graders in big trouble. There's long-haired, rebellious, cool guy Sam Dawkins; fun-loving, unacademic, pink-haired Kelsey Donnelly, African American grind Judy Douglas, and friendless genius Brenton Damagatchi. The whole thing starts because Sam is anti-homework, especially the daily fill in-the-blank worksheets his first-year teacher Miss Rasmussen hands out. Sam is skeptical when Brenton claims he has programmed his computer to search the web and do all his homework each day, but it’s true. Soon the four seatmates are spending every afternoon in Brenton’s bedroom, printing out their daily assignments on the computer they nickname Belch. It can’t do any harm, right? The chronology and confession of their ill-fated escapade is related entirely through a series of transcripts, narrated by the four contrite kids, their parents, classmates, and Miss Rasmussen.

There are many interesting threads explored in this nimble story: keeping secrets, making friends, being popular, the morality of taking the easy way out, first crushes, the meaning of war, and even the loss of a parent. The setting of the Grand Canyon and sub-themes about playing chess, starting fads, and using a catapult will get kids looking up supporting information in books and on the Internet. Questions readers can think about as they read include: Which of the four main characters is most like or unlike you and why? Which one would or would not be your friend and why?

Reviewed by : JF.

Themes : DEATH. FRIENDSHIP. GRIEF. HUMOR.

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CRITICS HAVE SAID

• “A dramatic and thought-provoking story with a strong message about honesty and friendship.” – Elaine E. Knight, School Library Journal
• “Booktalkers will find this a natural, particularly for those hard-to-tempt readers whose preferred method of computer disposal involves a catapult and the Grand Canyon.” – Carolyn Phelan, Booklist
• “Tucked in between the laughs are excellent messages about tolerance, honesty, and the importance of what the students’ teacher calls the “homework machine [that] already exists. It’s called your brain.” – Child Magazine
• “Short chapters of alternating voices tell the story, which is funny in some places, but is not without intense and sometimes sad moments.” – Susie Wilde, Children

IF YOU LOVE THIS BOOK, THEN TRY:

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• Clements, Andrew. Lunch Money. Simon & Schuster, 2005. ISBN-13: 9780689866852
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• Codell, Esm Raji. Sahara Special. Hyperion, 2003. ISBN-13: 9780786816118
• Fletcher, Ralph. Flying Solo. Clarion, 1998. ISBN-13: 9780395873236
• Gutman, Dan. The Get Rich Quick Club. HarperCollins, 2004. ISBN-13: 9780060534424
• Gutman, Dan. The Kid Who Ran for President. Scholastic, 1996. ISBN-13: 9780590939881
• Gutman, Dan. Qwerty Stevens Back in Time: The Edison Mystery. Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN-13: 9780590939881
• Park, Barbara. Maxie, Rosie, and Earl—Partners in Grime. Knopf, 1990. ISBN-13: 9780679806431
• Pearsall, Shelley. All of the Above. Little, Brown, 2006. ISBN-13: 9780316115261
• Rocklin, Joanne. For Your Eyes Only! Scholastic, 1997. ISBN-13: 9780142003220
• Sachar, Louis. Sideways Stories from Wayside School. Morrow, 1978. ISBN-13: 9780380698714

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The Homework Machine

Table of contents, about the book, about the author.

Dan Gutman hated to read when he was a kid. Then he grew up. Now he writes cool books like The Kid Who Ran for President ; Honus & Me ; The Million Dollar Shot ; Race for the Sky ; and The Edison Mystery: Qwerty Stevens, Back in Time . If you want to learn more about Dan or his books, stop by his website at DanGutman.com.

Product Details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (June 26, 2007)
• Length: 176 pages
• ISBN13: 9780689876790
• Grades: 3 - 7
• Ages: 8 - 12
• Fountas & Pinnell™ R These books have been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System

Browse Related Books

• Age 12 and Up
• Children's Fiction > Social Themes > Adolescence & Coming of Age
• Children's Fiction > Social Situations > Adolescence
• Children's Fiction > School & Education
• Children's Fiction > Humorous Stories

Awards and Honors

• ILA/CBC Children's Choices
• Maud Hart Lovelace Award Nominee (MN)
• Booklist Editors' Choice
• South Carolina Picture Book Award Nominee
• Iowa Children's Choice Award Nominee
• Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee (IN)
• Indian Paintbrush Book Award Nominee (WY)
• Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best
• Nutmeg Book Award Nominee (CT)
• Colorado Children's Book Award Master List
• Child Magazine's Guide to Top Books, Videos and Software of the Year
• Pacific Northwest Young Reader's Choice Award Master List
• Volunteer State Book Award Nominee (TN)
• Virginia Readers' Choice Award List
• Prairie Pasque Award Nominee (SD)
• Land of Enchantment RoadRunner Award Nominee (NM)
• Nene Award Nominee (HI)
• Sunshine State Young Readers' Award List (FL)
• Massachusetts Children's Book Award Nominee
• Golden Sower Award (NE)
• Sasquatch Book Award Nominee (WA)

Resources and Downloads

High resolution images.

• Book Cover Image (jpg): The Homework Machine Trade Paperback 9780689876790 (2.4 MB)

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THE HOMEWORK MACHINE

by Dan Gutman ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

When fifth-graders Judy, Sam and Kelsey discover their classmate Brenton Damagatchi’s homework machine, they think they are on to a good thing and begin to visit him regularly after school. Alphabetically seated at the same table, the brilliant Asian-American computer geek, hardworking, high-achieving African-American girl, troubled army brat and ditzy girl with pink hair would seem to have nothing in common. (They would also seem to be stereotypes, but young readers won’t mind.) But they share an aversion to the time-consuming grind of after-school work. Their use of the machine doesn’t lead to learning—as a surprise spring quiz demonstrates—but it does lead to new friendships and new interests. The events of their year are told chronologically in individual depositions to the police. In spite of the numerous voices, the story is easy to follow, and the change in Sam, especially, is clear, as he discovers talents beyond coolness thanks to a new interest in chess. Middle-grade readers may find one part of this story upsettingly realistic and the clearly stated moral not what they had hoped to hear, but the generally humorous approach will make the lesson go down easily. (Fiction. 8-11)

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-689-87678-5

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2006

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

Share your opinion of this book

More by Dan Gutman

BOOK REVIEW

by Dan Gutman ; illustrated by Allison Steinfeld

by Dan Gutman

DAVID GOES TO SCHOOL

by David Shannon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999

The poster boy for relentless mischief-makers everywhere, first encountered in No, David! (1998), gives his weary mother a rest by going to school. Naturally, he’s tardy, and that’s but the first in a long string of offenses—“Sit down, David! Keep your hands to yourself! PAY ATTENTION!”—that culminates in an afterschool stint. Children will, of course, recognize every line of the text and every one of David’s moves, and although he doesn’t exhibit the larger- than-life quality that made him a tall-tale anti-hero in his first appearance, his round-headed, gap-toothed enthusiasm is still endearing. For all his disruptive behavior, he shows not a trace of malice, and it’ll be easy for readers to want to encourage his further exploits. (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-590-48087-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Scholastic

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999

More by David Shannon

by David Shannon ; illustrated by David Shannon

TUCK EVERLASTING

by Natalie Babbitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1975

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...

At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever. 

Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it. 

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975

ISBN: 0312369816

Page Count: 164

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

More by Natalie Babbitt

by Natalie Babbitt

by Valerie Worth & illustrated by Natalie Babbitt

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The Homework Machine Hardcover – March 1, 2006

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Book 1 of 2 The Homework Machine
• Print length 160 pages
• Language English
• Grade level 3 - 7
• Lexile measure 680L
• Dimensions 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.25 inches
• Publisher Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date March 1, 2006
• ISBN-10 0689876785
• ISBN-13 978-0689876783
• See all details

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; Repackage edition (March 1, 2006)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0689876785
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0689876783
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 8 - 11 years, from customers
• Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 680L
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 3 - 7
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.25 inches
• #3,829 in Children's Values Books
• #7,387 in Children's School Issues
• #18,098 in Children's Friendship Books

About the author

I was born in a log cabin in Illinois and used to write by candlelight with a piece of chalk on a shovel. Oh, wait a minute. That was Abraham Lincoln.

Actually, I’m a children's book author. I’ve written more than 170 books for kids from kindergarten up to middle school.

For the little ones, I write picture books like "Rappy the Raptor," about a rapping raptor named Rappy, who raps.

For beginning readers, I write "My Weird School," about some kids who go to a school in which all the grownups are crazy. Thirty-one million copies have been sold. I also write “Wait! WHAT?” a series of biographies that focus on the unusual aspects of people like Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart, Muhammad Ali, and Teddy Roosevelt.

For middle-graders, I write the baseball card adventure series, about a boy who has the power to travel through time using a baseball card like a time machine. He goes on adventures with players like Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, and others.

For advanced readers, I write "The Genius Files," "Flashback Four,” “Houdini and Me” and others.

If you’d like to find out more, visit my web site (www.dangutman.com), my Facebook fan page, and follow me on Twitter and Instagram @dangutmanbooks.

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Literature / The Homework Machine

Edit locked.

"Seen a lot of strange stuff go down in 10 years working here, probably has something to do with being so close to the canyon. Having a mile deep hole in your backyard brings out the weirdness in folks. I remember that time the gambler from LA lost a bet in Las Vegas, and his friends drove him up here; forced him to parachute into the canyon, guy almost died. You get all kinds in this part of the country, the canyon attracts 'em like flies to dog doo... But this recent situation involving the children, was one of the stranger cases I ever ran into..." — Police Chief Rebecca Fish

In an interview room sits a police officer, and a girl named Kelsey; the latter of which is considered guilty of a crime. The child is demanded to give a testimony and is being recorded by cameras and microphones, all eyes and ears on them. The girl parts her lips, and begins to talk.

STOP. EJECT. INSERT NEXT TAPE. PLAY.

Brenton Damagatchi, Judy Douglas, Sam "Snik" Dawkins, and Kelsey Donnelly are all 5th grade students that only share one thing in common: their last names all start with a "D". Apart from that, they're nothing alike, Brenton is the typical smart kid who gets perfect grades, Judy always looks up to the teacher, Sam is a class clown who doesn't play by the rules, and Kelsey doesn't care enough about her grades to do any real work. Despite this (and largely because their teacher assigns seats in alphabetical order), they're all forced to sit together in class, with only their last names keeping them together...

At least that's what you may be led to believe.

All these kids (who cheekily named themselves "the 'D' squad" due to their last names) do share something else: a secret that if revealed, could have massive repercussions within the school district and within the county itself.

A 2007 novel by Dan Gutman, The Homework Machine is about the social repercussions of the eponymous device, and a commentary on the inner workings of the American Education System. The book's narrative is told in a series of testimonies provided by the 4 lead child characters, as well as their parents, the teachers, and the staff of the school they all attended. The testimonies are provided in the order they were taken, but said testimonies do not tell the story in the order that the events took place.

Was followed by a sequel in 2009, Return of the Homework Machine .

The Homework Machine contains examples of:

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot : Downplayed. Giving the homework machine the ability to access the sum of human knowledge leads to it not turning off when unplugged but that's all it really does. The D-squad freaks out and chucks it into the canyon .
• All First-Person Narrators Write Like Novelists : Zigzagged. They do spend a fair amount of time discussing not-exactly-homework-machine-related things, but for the most part, the cast of narrators talk like people, not like novelists.
• Armor-Piercing Question : When Ronnie suspects the D Squad has a secret, he tries to get it out of Brenton by pretending to be friendly, and when that doesn't work, he threatens to reveal what Brenton is up to. Brenton says, "And what exactly am I up to?" Ronnie doesn't have an answer, because he doesn't know.
• Asian and Nerdy : Brenton is Japanese-American and a genius kid who's programmed a machine to do his homework for him, and he's only in fifth grade.
• Black and Nerdy : Judy is a gifted, hardworking and rule-abiding student who gets called a goody-goody and a know-it-all by the other kids.
• Bonding over Missing Parents : Kelsey starts crying when she finds out about Snik's dad, because she lost her own father in a snowmobile accident when she was six.
• Chekhov's Gun : The catapult, which they used to fling the machine into the canyon.
• Child Prodigy : Brenton has always been a super-genius, even from a young age. Brenton's mom : He spoke very early. He had no interest in watching television or playing with other children. Instead, he would play chess against himself. He taught himself how to play the piano as soon as he was big enough to climb up on the bench. When he was just six, he wrote a concerto. Really! And that's what he called it, too. "My concerto." I don't know where he got the word concerto. I still don't know what it means. He was very special.
• Deadpan Snarker : Snik has a sharp tongue. This is what he wrote for an assignment where the class had to make 10 rules about homework. 1. We live in a democracy, where we have freedom, right? We're entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So how can I pursue happiness if I have to spend every night doing home-work? Homework is cruel, totalitarian punishment created by grown-ups to take away the freedoms of poor, defenseless children. 2. Nobody ever saved a life, won a war, stopped a crime, or cured a disease while they were doing homework. Think of all the good things we could be accomplishing if we didn't have to spend so much time doing homework. 3. Doing homework causes eyestrain, fatigue, insomnia, and other physical ailments. 4. Thomas Edison went to school for four months. He never did any homework, and look how he turned out. 5. There's a name for working without getting paid. It's called slavery, and it was banned during the Civil War. If kids are forced to do homework, they should be paid for it. 6. Homework is proof of teacher incompetence. If a teacher is any good, students would learn the stuff in school and wouldn't have to learn it again at home. 7. Doing homework wastes valuable natural resources. We have to use lots of energy to keep all those lightbulbs burning. We have to cut down trees to make paper and pencils. We'd save a lot of energy by banning homework. 8. I keep hearing that American kids are way too fat, and that's because we don't get enough exercise. For every minute kids are doing homework, we are getting fatter. Kids should be outside running around and getting exercise, not inside doing worksheets. 9. Virtually every known murderer, bank robber, and criminal did homework when they were children. How can we be sure the homework didn't cause the criminal behavior? 10. Homework sucks. There should be a constitutional amendment banning it.
• Deconstruction : Brenton is a Child Prodigy , but he's not one to the absurd levels many books and television shows depict them. He was only able to build the Homework Machine in the first place because he got ahold of an advanced supercomputer by a fluke, and despite his nerdiness he's not capable of doing things that are outside the realms of plausibility. At the end of the day, he is still a kid.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect : After a while, Miss Rasmussen starts getting suspicious of the homework the D Squad is turning in because their answers are always perfect with no mistakes. In turn, Brenton starts programming the homework machine to make minor mistakes at random when doing Snik's and Kelsey's homework because they're more Book Dumb than either him or Judy.
• Early Personality Signs : According to Brenton's mom, he was always different from other kids. He never cried as a baby, and never wanted to play with other children or watch TV. He played chess with himself and taught himself how to play the piano.
• Everyone Has Standards : Even though he hates the D Squad, Ronnie swears up and down that he wasn't the one who called the cops on them. He's not lying. It was Brenton.
• Exact Words : When Miss Rasmussen is starting to get suspicious of the D Squad's perfect homework, she takes Snik aside and asks him if he ever copies off anybody. He says he doesn't, which is technically true because he gets the machine to do his homework for him.
• Only Sane Man: Judy
• The Smart Guy: Brenton
• The Pervert: Snik
• The Butt Monkey: Kelsey
• The Cynic: Snik, who hates homework with a violent passion and refused to do it for a time at his old school
• The Optimist: Judy, who really doesn't mind homework and thinks it has educational value
• The Realist: Kelsey, who does homework even though it sucks
• The Apathetic: Brenton, who doesn't really mind homework but admits it's time consuming and thus invents the homework machine
• Choleric: Brenton (the genius)
• Melancholic: Judy (the perfectionist)
• Sanguine: Snik (the class clown)
• Phlegmatic: Kelsey (the slacker)
• Framing Device : The story is told through testimonials given by the D Squad, their teacher, their parents, and occasionally other people. It's framed as the police putting the story together the following summer.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble : The D-Squad consists of Brenton and Snik (male) and Judy and Kelsey (female).
• I'll Be Your Best Friend : Sam offers to be Brenton's friend to let him use the Homework Machine, believing that friends are the one thing he'd want that he doesn't have. Ultimately, they end up becoming friends for real.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation : Brenton is a Child Prodigy with a ridiculously advanced mind who can't relate to other kids and seemingly has no interest in making friends. He only ends up befriending the rest of the D Squad in the first place because they came over to his house for a homework assignment.
• It Won't Turn Off : The machine runs unplugged, and only turns off when thrown over the Grand Canyon.
• Military Brat : Snik, who's new at the beginning of the story because his father is assigned to Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix.
• Nobody Likes a Tattletale : When the D Squad first hears about the homework machine that Brenton built, Judy thinks about raising her hand and telling the teacher, but decides not to because everyone already calls her a goody two-shoes and she doesn't want them calling her a tattletale too.
• Noodle Incident : We never find out why Snik got suspended at his previous school, though it's implied it had something to do with him not wanting to do his homework.
• Open-Minded Parent : Kelsey's mom lets her elementary-school-age daughter dye her hair pink and pierce her belly button.
• Revealing Cover Up : The homework machine is only discovered when the D-squad builds a catapult to chuck it into the Grand Canyon and its parts are later found by some hikers, therefore getting them caught for littering.
• Sdrawkcab Name : Snik's real name is Sam, but his nickname is "Snikwad" or "Snik" because that's his last name, Dawkins, spelled backwards.
• Switching P.O.V. : The story is narrated by 4 characters: Brenton Damagatchi, Kelsey Donnelly, Sam "Snick" Dawkins, and Judy Douglas.
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The Homework Machine — by Dan Gutman

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The Homework Machine Series in Order (2 Books)

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The Homework Machine

50 pages • 1 hour read

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Authorial Context: Dan Gutman

The Homework Machine is the first book of a two-part series. The second book, The Return of The Homework Machine , brings the D Squad back together when Brenton realizes that the chip he developed to make Belch, his homework machine, was never destroyed and has fallen into the wrong hands. The Return of the Homework Machine is written in the same multi-perspective style as The Homework Machine . Like The Homework Machine , the Return of The Homework Machine uses police recordings of the characters’ recollection of events to tell the narrative in multiple distinct voices. The characters’ viewpoints, language, and tone give them dimension without the author having to describe them. Gutman’s books address complex moral issues, such as cheating, lying, and bigotry, but his use of humor and relatable writing style make the books accessible and fun rather than preachy.

Before becoming a renowned author, Dan Gutman studied psychology at Rutgers University and later became an expert in computers after starting a video games magazine,  Computer Games  (originally called Video Games Player ). Both psychology and computers feature heavily in Gutman’s Homework Machine novels.

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The homework machine

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