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Literature / The Homework Machine
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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).
- 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
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Celeste Banks Conner Weston
The Homework Machine is an Wiki Channel Original Movie set to premiere 2015. The movie is based on the book of the same title."It is much like the book, but more grownup." said Tatertat, the producer and director for the film.
- 2.1 Main Characters
- 2.2 Supporting Characters
When Brenton, Sam, Judy, and Kelsey all get paired up to sit together in homeroom, you would think nothing can happen right...? But when one claims to have a homework machine, their lives change forever. Now the kids that wouldn't be caught dead together... are hanging out, laughing and even flirting with each other; that gets people wondering. And that is the last thing they need. Then everything changes when jealous rises, grades start to drastically change and the machine starts get more powerful then inspected. With the police, teachers, an mysterious stranger all on their tails, will four students be able to stick together or will they be force to be apart? And is a machine that does your homework really worth it?
Characters [ ]
Main Characters [ ]
- Joseph Brandon as Brenton Damagatchi: He is the main focus of the movie, He is the genius behind it all. He is also not really the type of person to have lots of friends, but over time he starts to adjust to the three others. He is always over the top when it comes to school work as well. In science class, when he was asked to create a small catpult, he creates a life size one. The only person he respected him fully before this happened was Judy due to the fact that they are both in advance classes together.
- Celeste Banks as Judy Douglas: She is the typical teacher's pet. She gets awesome grades, but not as good as Brenton. She considers herself very likable, being the person that usually watches drama unfold instead of being in it. She is the observer in the group due to her quiet nature and ususually good hearing. She gets closer to Sam out of most of the group when she discovers that not everyone is of what they seem.
- Katy Young as Kelsey Donnelly: She is kinda the class clown of the bunch. Always there where you need a laugh. She wants nothing more to get out of the place called school. She keeps her grades just above failing so she can stick with the rest of the crowd. She doesnt really seem to get the value of school a lot and doesnt seem to give Brenton or Judy the time of day before all this.
- Conner Weston as Sam "Snikwad" Dawkins: He is the slacker of the group. He sees school as a waste of space. He also tends to rebel from time to time. Sam makes fun of Brenton from time to time but realizes that they are both alike because of the lack of fathers in their lives. His father is in the U.S. army and the group helps him gets through time when he gets bad news on his father's condition on base in Iraq. He is connects the most to Brenton and Judy despite sharing horrible grades with Kelsey, they dont click like him and Judy do.
Supporting Characters [ ]
- Tamar Singh as Milner: Nobody knows who exactly he is until the end of the film but he plays a important role. He is the first to know about the homework machine outside of the group after spying on the D-squad. He wants in on it but doesnt want to share. He starts to send threatening notes to the crew demanding that they give up the machine. He also causes the breaking point in the movie when he breaks in to try to steal the machine but is caught by Brenton's mom.
- Julianna Fox as Danielle Jameson : She is not your typical popular chick, she is extremely nice and sweet. But she does have a bad jealous side to her. When her longtime crush, Sam seen with Judy more than he should, she decided that might need to be stop before things get serious. So when she hears about the homework machine, she sees it as the chance to split the pair up. But here's the thing, how do you break a couple up that arent even one...yet?
- Maria Santos as Natasha: Best friend to Danielle and has a noticable evil side. Her and Danielle balance each other out and are nice to the majority of the student body. She loves seeing her best friends jealous side and would do anything to get it out.
- TBA as Miss Rasmussen: She is a first year teacher and teaches science along with homeroom. She is very inexperienced and oblivious to things around including four student behaviors. Considering she has all of them for science, she is the teacher who has to test their knowledge when her D-average students are getting straight 100s on their homework.
- TBA as Officer Thomas: He is the head officer in the case. He is very specific when it comes to his work in the force. He doesnt believe it when it first told to him that a powerful homework machine exists, but joins the investigation as lead officer when they discover that the machine is indeed real and more powerful then they think.
- 1 The Homework Machine
- 2 Chatter/Weebley
- 3 The Boxcar Children (movie)
The Homework Machine #1
The homework machine.
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!
160 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2006
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Spaghetti Book Club - Book Reviews by Kids for Kids
The homework machine.
Written by Dan Gutman
Reviewed by John P. (age 11)
The Homework Machine is about a boy named Brenton who invents a Homework Machine. A boy named Snikwad, discovers the machine and tells the D squad. The D squad members are Kelsey, Judy, Snikwad, and Brenton. They don't want anyone to know about it. They use it so they don't have to worry about homework. They keep getting emails from a guy named R. Milner. They think someone is watching them and they don't want to get in trouble. There is a boy named Ronnie and he is suspocious when Snickwad starts getting A's because he never gets A's. He is anxious to find out how he is now getting A's.
I thought this book was a great one. It was very full of action and it's also funny. The author has written another book with the same characters. It is called Revenge of the Homework machine. I reccomend you read this book too, if you like the Homework Machine. This book doesn't have any pictures but it's a very descriptive book. All readers between the ages of 9 and 12 would enjoy this book.
Students who like wierd and action books should read this book.Although the beginning of this book is boring, the ending is really good. There are also some challenging words in the book, but other than that it's a great book.
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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
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- Title/Author
- Problem/Solution
The main characters in this book are: Brenton Damagatchi Judy Douglas Kelsey Donnelly Sam Dawkins (a.k.a. Snik) Ronnie Teotwawki Mr. Murphy Brenton, Judy, Kelsey, and Snik are part of the D-Squad, which is a nickname for them in the last book and still are sometimes referred to as the D-Squad.
- Lying
- Humiliate: T o make (someone) feel very ashamed or foolish
- Bigotry(Bigot) : A person who strongly and unfairly dislikes other people, ideas, etc.
- Creep: T o move slowly with the body close to the ground
- Reaction: T he way someone acts or feels in response to something that happens, is said, etc.
- Permanent: L asting or continuing for a very long time or forever : not temporary or changing
- Ordeal : A n experience that is very unpleasant or difficult
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Books My Kids Read
The Homework Machine – A story of ethics
What if you had a machine that could do all of your homework for you? Would you share that information? What would you do with all of the extra time? How would you feel about using the machine? These are all questions that come up in Dan Gutman’s The Homework Machine .
We picked up this book because it is on the 2016-17 NC elementary school Battle of the Books. J really enjoyed this book and simply couldn’t put it down. For her, she felt that this was one of those books where you really felt like you were a part of the story. She felt that she was right there in the story, seeing it through the characters’ eyes. One reason for that sense of perspective comes from the fact that you read all of the actions from various perspectives. Whereas The Candymakers focused on a long period of time from one character and then repeated that whole segment from another character’s perspective, The Homework Machine, switches from paragraph to paragraph in the four main characters’ perspectives as well as the teacher, two mothers and a few classmates.
J also felt very connected to one of the characters because the two had a great deal in common. With four very distinct personalities, it is probable that a reader will feel a certain bond or kinship with an individual character.
From an adult perspective, it was very interesting to see how the kids not only dealt with the notion of right and wrong when it came to using the machine, but also how they developed as individuals. Judy, the intelligent class-pet who worked hard but excelled, struggled with the most guilt throughout the story. Sam, the class clown, and Kelsey, the slacker, wanted to utilize the homework machine the most because they truly struggled when it came to doing the work and wanted an easy out, so they dealt with less guilt. Brenton invented it as a way to free up his time to study other things that he wasn’t doing in school and because he knew all of the answers anyway.
In addition to the ethical question of using a homework machine, part of the story dealt with each child’s desire, or lack there-of, of fitting in, especially through the eyes of Aam. Sam struggles with both a great deal of self-doubt and yet a strong need to be seen as cool. By being a part of the foursome and seeing Brenton seriously not care what others thought of him, helped Sam have more faith in himself.
This is a great book to get kids thinking about ethics. Additionally, it also highlights the fact that you can’t judge a book, or person, by it’s cover and that we don’t know what others are going through. As we have started to read a few other Battle of the Books entries, that seems to be a theme for a selection of them this year and it is a great way to help teach empathy. All in all, this was a very enjoyable book.
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Sounds like a great read! My son would do anything to get out of homework. Great review!
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The D-Squad · Sam "Snikwad" Dawkins · Brenton Damagatchi · Judy Douglas · Kelsey Donnelly.
Choleric: Brenton (the genius) · Melancholic: Judy (the perfectionist) · Sanguine: Snik (the class clown) · Phlegmatic: Kelsey (the slacker).
Celeste Banks as Judy Douglas: She is the typical teacher's pet. She gets awesome grades, but not as good as Brenton. She considers herself very likable, being
The 4 main characters are Sam, Judy, Brenton and Kelsey. Quotes from Sam: "Thomas Edison went to school for four months. He never did any homework
The Homework Machine is about a boy named Brenton who invents a Homework Machine. A boy named Snikwad, discovers the machine and tells the D squad.
The Homework Machine · By:Dan Gutman · Brenton Damagatchi is a genius. · the one and only homework machine. · Kelsey Donnelly isn't very smart because she doesn't
The conflict in the story is that one of the main characters Brenton, made a homework machine over the summer. The three other main characters Sam, Judy
Starting with a stern statement from the Grand Canyon, Arizona Police Chief Rebecca Fish, meet four fifth graders in big trouble.
The main characters in this book are: Brenton Damagatchi Judy Douglas Kelsey Donnelly Sam Dawkins (a.k.a. Snik) Ronnie Teotwawki Mr. Murphy Brenton, Judy
Summary: A group of 4 students made up of a geek, a class clown, a teacher's pet, and a slacker come together and form a friendship all
The foursome is made up of a geek, a class clown, a teacher's pet and a slacker. When the geek, Brenton, accidentally tells Sam about his