homework machine book review

The Homework Machine

By Dan Gutman

Book Reviews (31)

this is a super cool book, if you hate home work I recommend this book also Happy early Fathers day!!!! enjoy the book!

It all starts that Brenton brags to Snik, a.k.a. Sam, that he has made a homework machine that can do homework for people. Soon he is pressured by him to show it. So after school he and his friends go to Brenton's house, finding that he is not lying. As they use it more and more, they realize that the computer has become more intelligent and someone is after it. How will they be able to stop him?

It was pretty funny! I fell off my bed while reading! you should also read this book! It's so funny!

I personally don't like this book. I don't like the style the author used. I can't imagine why kids read this for fun. I'm in 5th grade I want something more challenging.

This book was great 😀

Do you like homework? Well this machine takes care of that. This book is about a group of kids who have a machine that does their homework. They all swore not to tell anyone about it. Then they realize that someone knows about it. I would rate this book 5 stars because of all the mystery and new friendship that forms. Unlike other books, this book is wrote as if you are with the character.

Do you like doing homework? Well, this book takes care of that problem. It is about a group of kids (called the D-squad) that use a homework machine to get their work done. The name of the kid that invented the machine is a boy named Brenton, who is quite unusual. Brenton is a super intelligent kid and is a computer genius! The D-squad name the machine "Belch" because if anyone found out, the Homework Machine would get them in a LOT of trouble. They swore to not tell anybody any information about the machine. Eventually, the truth came out. I would rate this book 5 stars because of the suspense and personalities of the characters. One of the unique features in this book is that the story is written in point of view so you know how each character feels. I would like to give credit to Yetiman789 because he did this review with me.

In this book there is an unlikely foursome with a geek in it and this geek Brenton made a homework machine all the others didn’t believe him so they went to his house after school they put there homework in there and it accuttuly worked they kept doing this the unlikely in the group to get good grades kept getting a 100 on there homework there teacher obvisoley had to give them to a test in there homework in class they both got a c and the teacher started getting suspicious and some how the police found out

The Homework Machine is about four kids who hate homework. A book full of adventure creativity and imagination. Read it for school this year.

i can't wait to read this book

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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)

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The Homework Machine

50 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapters 9-10

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

The Homework Machine , written by acclaimed American author Dan Gutman was first published in 2007 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers and is the first of a two-book series. The second book, The Return of the Homework Machine , was published in 2011. Gutman is primarily a children’s fiction writer who has been nominated for and won numerous awards, including 18 for The Homework Machine alone. Gutman is best known for his humorous series, My Weird School , in which there are more than 70 books. He lives in New York City with his family.

The paperback edition used for this study guide was published by Simon & Schuster in 2007.

Plot Summary

The Homework Machine is told from the perspectives of multiple characters in the format of tape recordings for a police report.

The four main characters are fifth-grade students who are grouped at the same classroom table because their last names start with D: Sam Dawkins (Snik), Kelsey Donnelly , Judy Douglas , and Brenton Damagatchi . Other than sharing the same last initial, the students have nothing in common. Snik is the cool class smart aleck; Kelsey is laid back and doesn’t care about school; Judy is conscientious and in the gifted program; and Brenton is a loner and genius who designs software and studies psychology in his spare time. Snik pushes people’s buttons, and one day he pushes Brenton too far—implying that Brenton spends all his free time doing homework. Brenton retorts that he doesn’t spend any time doing homework and lets slip that he has invented a homework machine.

Snik calls Brenton a liar, so Brenton invites Snik, Judy, and Kelsey to his house to see for themselves. The group are stunned when Brenton’s machine prints out perfectly completed homework in Brenton’s handwriting. Brenton agrees to let Snik, Judy, and Kelsey join him after school to “do” their homework and even rewrites the software to accommodate their handwriting. The unlikely foursome spends every afternoon together, but they insist that they are not friends and that the only reason they tolerate each other is to use the homework machine, which they name Belch. Judy feels guilty about cheating but enjoys getting A’s and uses the extra time to take up ballet. Kelsey’s vastly improved grades earn her privileges, such as a belly-button piercing, from her mother. As the weeks pass, the D Squad becomes addicted to using Belch and the boundaries between their various social identities begin to blur. Snik shows an interest in “boring” chess, which Brenton plays, and Judy tries to be complimentary about Kelsey’s piercings (while finding them disgusting). Everything seems to be going well. However, things start to rapidly fall apart halfway through the year. Judy and Kelsey’s other friends resent their new associations and “unfriend” them, and their teacher, Miss Rasmussen , suspects that they are cheating.

In addition, a strange man has been stalking the group ever since Brenton designed software to instigate a hugely successful social media-driven “red socks day” that spread across America. Miss Rasmussen springs a surprise test on the class to see whether the D Squad really knows their schoolwork. Sure enough—Kelsey and Snik fail, and Judy gets a C, confirming Miss Rasmussen’s suspicions. Before Miss Rasmussen can report them, Snik’s father, who is in the military, is killed in the Middle East. This tragic event diverts Miss Rasmussen’s attention from the cheating, which seems trivial in comparison. The bond between the D Squad strengthens as the stress of keeping Belch secret increases.

Together they decide to shut Belch down, only to discover that Belch has taken on a life of its own and will not power off. They throw Belch into the Grand Canyon and feel relief as they watch it disappear. However, when backpackers find computer pieces at the bottom of the canyon, the D Squad is called into the sheriff’s office where they confess to everything. The case is closed, but their unlikely friendships continue to strengthen and grow. The stalker turns out to be someone scouting Brenton to offer him a job as an influencer for his company. The company’s clients want to market their products to kids. Brenton simply offers him an idea he would like to influence kids with: “Do your homework” (146).

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The Homework Machine

Buy from other retailers, what's this book about.

DOING HOMEWORK BECOMES A THING OF THE PAST The unlikely foursome made up of a geek, a class clown, a teacher’s pet, and a slacker – Brenton, Sam Snick, Judy and Kelsey, respectively, – are bound together by one very big secret: the homework machine. Because the machine, code named Belch, is doing their homework for them, they start spending a lot of time together, attracting a lot of attention. And attention is exactly what you don’t want when you are keeping a secret. Before long, members of the D Squad, as they are called at school are getting strange Instant Messages from a shady guy named Milner; their teacher, Miss Rasmussen, is calling private meetings with each of them and giving them pop tests that they are failing; and someone has leaked the possibility of a homework machine to the school newspaper. Just when the D Squad thinks things can’t get any more out of control, Belch becomes much more powerful than they ever imagined. Soon the kids are in a race against their own creation, and the loser could end up in jail…or worse!

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The Creative Behind the Book

Dan Gutman is the New York Times bestselling author of the Genius Files series; the Baseball Card Adventure series, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies around the world; and the My Weird School series, which has sold more than 12 million copies. Thanks to his many fans who voted in their classrooms, Dan has received nineteen state book awards and ninety-two state book award nominations. He lives in New York City with his wife, Nina. You can visit him online at www.dangutman.com.

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THE HOMEWORK MACHINE

March 1, 2006 Aladdin/Simon & Schuster ISBN: 9780689876783 Ages 8-12

Study Guide

ABOUT THE BOOK

The unlikely foursome made up of a geek, a class clown, a teacher’s pet, and a slacker—Brenton, Sam, Judy and Kelsey, respectively—are bound together by one very big secret: the homework machine. Because the machine, code named Belch, is doing their homework for them, they start spending a lot of time together, attracting a lot of attention. And attention is exactly what you don’t want when you are keeping a secret.

Before long, members of the D Squad, as they are called at school, are getting strange Instant Messages from a shady guy named Milner; their teacher, Miss Rasmussen, is calling private meetings with each of them and giving them pop tests that they are failing; and someone has leaked the possibility of a homework machine to the school newspaper. Just when the D Squad thinks things can’t get any more out of control, Belch becomes much more powerful than they ever imagined. Soon the kids are in a race against their own creation, and the loser could end up in jail…or worse!

AWARDS AND LISTS

ILA/CBC Children’s Choices ● Child Magazine’s Best Children’s Books of 2006 ● Booklist Editor’s Choice ● Booklinks‘ Lasting Connections of 2006, ● 2006 New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading & Sharing ● Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best ● Sasquatch Award Winner (Washington) ● Bluestem Book Award Nominee (Illinois) ● Colorado Children’s Book Award Master List ● Delaware Diamonds Award Nominee ● Disney Adventures Book Awards Nominee ● Golden Sower Award (Nebraska) ● Indian Paintbrush Book Award Nominee (Wyoming) ● Iowa Children’s Choice Award Nominee ● Keystone to Reading Award Nominee (Pennsylvania) ● Land of Enchantment RoadRunner Award Nominee (New Mexico) ● Massachusetts Children’s Book Award Nominee ● Maud Hart Lovelace Award Nominee (Minnesota) ● Nebraska Golden Sower Award Nominee ● Nene Award Nominee (Hawaii) ● Nutmeg Children’s Book Award Nominee (Connecticut) ● ONEBOOKAZ Nominee (Arizona) ● Pacific Northwest Young Reader’s Choice Award Master List ● Prairie Pasque Award Nominee (South Dakota) ● South Carolina Children’s Book Award Nominee ● Sunshine State Young Readers Award Nominee (Florida) ● Virginia Readers’ Choice Award List ● Volunteer State Book Award Nominee (Tennessee) ● Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee (Indiana)

★ “This fast-paced, entertaining book has something for everyone.” — Booklist

“Humorous” — Kirkus Reviews

“A dramatic and thought-provoking story with a strong message about honesty and friendship.” — School Library Journal

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Spaghetti Book Club - Book Reviews by Kids for Kids

The homework machine.

Written by Dan Gutman

Reviewed by Lucia C. (age 11)

The Homework Machine is about four kids Sam, Kelsey, Judy, and Brenton. Brenton creates the homework machine and there are problems.

When the four kids join together Brenton tells them about a machine he made. Sam didn?t believe Brenton so they all went over his house and they saw the machine. Miss Rasmussen, their teacher is giving pop tests and they are failing them. Someone tells the school news paper. Just when they think it can?t get worse the machine becomes powerful.

I liked The Homework Machine because kids have to go against there own creation. I also liked that the machine is always doing there homework and they are getting A's on the work. If someone tells anyone about the machine anyone of them can go to jail or worse.

I would recommend The Homework Machine because it was interesting and it talks about things that can happen in school. It is also an easy read because it only 146 pages long. The kids in the book have their own personality, they are not all the same. I loved this book.

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The Homework Machine

by Dan Gutman (Author)

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RETURN OF THE HOMEWORK MACHINE

by Dan Gutman ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2009

Sitting in the local police station, sixth graders Snik, Judy, Kelsey and Brenton and their teacher recount the events that led them there: the loss of a unique computer chip and their search in the Grand Canyon for Egyptian treasure. Readers of The Homework Machine (2006) will welcome the return of familiar characters and appreciate the addition of a classmate whose plans for the superchip are less than savory. This sequel stands alone, however, satisfyingly suspenseful in its several strands. Besides the search for the chip, there is Brenton’s creation of a web-based doomsday cult surrounding the Grand Canyon, their new interest in rocketry and old newspaper reports of an Egyptian treasure. With their teacher, they hike to the canyon bottom, raft on the river and scale the walls to find treasure, a corpse and a dangerous man. Gutman weaves this all together, revealing it chronologically through the voices of those involved, a complicated structure that is surprisingly easy to follow. Briskly told, this middle-grade adventure should have wide appeal. (Fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: June 2, 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4169-5416-3

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2009

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CHARLOTTE'S WEB

by E.B. White illustrated by Garth Williams ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1952

The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...

A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.

Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952

ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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by E.B. White & illustrated by Maggie Kneen

by E.B. White illustrated by Fred Marcellino

by E.B. White illustrated by Garth Williams

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SEEN & HEARD

by Raina Telgemeier ; illustrated by Raina Telgemeier ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 17, 2019

With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many.

Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick.

Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina’s mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious “what if”s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from cheer to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American.

Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-545-85251-7

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS

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by Raina Telgemeier ; illustrated by Raina Telgemeier

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The Homework Machine

Description.

Dan Gutman, the prolific author of over 60 popular books for children and young adults, vividly imagines what is surely every put-upon school kid's dream: a machine that does homework for them-error free!When four unlikely friends become dependent on this marvelous device, they'll soon learn that cheating always has its consequences-including legal trouble. No matter what happens, their best bet is to stick together. "A dramatic and thought-provoking story with a strong message about honesty." -School Library Journal, starred review

• Dan Gutman - Author
• Cherise Boothe - Narrator
• Julia Gibson - Narrator
• Norm Lee - Narrator
• Andy Paris - Narrator
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OverDrive Listen audiobook

• ISBN: 9781456100292
• File size: 90753 KB
• Release date: July 13, 2007
• Duration: 03:09:04

MP3 audiobook

• File size: 90952 KB
• Duration: 03:09:02
• Number of parts: 3

OverDrive Listen audiobook MP3 audiobook

Juvenile Fiction Juvenile Literature Humor (Fiction)

Lexile® Measure: 680 Text Difficulty: 3

Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc. Edition: Unabridged

OverDrive Listen audiobook ISBN: 9781456100292 File size: 90753 KB Release date: July 13, 2007 Duration: 03:09:04

MP3 audiobook ISBN: 9781456100292 File size: 90952 KB Release date: July 13, 2007 Duration: 03:09:02 Number of parts: 3

• Formats OverDrive Listen audiobook MP3 audiobook
• Languages English
• Levels Lexile® Measure: 680 Text Difficulty: 3

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The Dan Gutman Collection (Boxed Set): The Homework Machine; Return of the Homework Machine; Nightmare at the Book Fair; The Talent Show Paperback – November 8, 2016

• Reading age 8 - 12 years
• Print length 816 pages
• Language English
• Grade level 3 - 7
• Dimensions 5.13 x 2.4 x 7.63 inches
• Publisher Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date November 8, 2016
• ISBN-10 1481497669
• ISBN-13 978-1481497664
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; Boxed Set edition (November 8, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 816 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1481497669
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1481497664
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 8 - 12 years
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 3 - 7
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.32 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.13 x 2.4 x 7.63 inches
• #1,298 in Children's School Issues
• #2,419 in Children's Humor

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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Customers say

Customers find the books fun and great. They also appreciate the content.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the books fun and motivational for their grandson to read.

"...are longer and more detailed than the Weird Daze books, but equally entertaining . He loves reading his books!! I strongly recommend these books!" Read more

"...Great, family read too !" Read more

" Fun books ." Read more

" Great motivation for my grandson to read !..." Read more

Customers find the content of the book great.

"... These books do not disappoint . They are longer and more detailed than the Weird Daze books, but equally entertaining. He loves reading his books!!..." Read more

"... Great , family read too!" Read more

" Great Read " Read more

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