5th Grade and Up
It’s the first day at
Vanguard One Middle School for a new student: Fuzzy, a state-of-the-art robot!
When Fuzzy arrives at the school as part of the Robot Integration Program, 7th
grader Max is thrilled. She loves robots. The two become fast friends, and Max
teaches her new classmate everything he needs to know about how to survive 7th
grade.
When the two friends
discover the super-secret purpose behind the Robot Integration Program, they
realize they’ll have to combine Fuzzy’s super smarts with Max’s super savvy to
outwit the adults…and an even trickier foe: a digital student evaluation system
named BARBARA that might be taking its mission to shape the perfect student to
extremes.
It
wasn’t until the first page that I wondered why a robot would have to go to
middle school in the first place (ironically the same question is asked on the
second page). There is a reason why Fuzzy is attending school, I just can’t
tell you.
Once
again, a story about a near future that’s very possible. Computers and machines
are becoming more advanced and doing more tasks each year. I pray that
technology won’t take over the school systems, for future kids sakes. What ever
happened to teachers who can actually teach?
The
government apparently wanted a robot that could think for itself, because
that’s not a dangerous idea. Luckily this book’s more ‘Short Circuit’ then ‘Terminator’.
One thing that the robot has to learn is how to walk through a crowded hallway.
As someone whose high school was extremely over-crowded, this is a very hard
thing to do. Personally if I saw a robot walking down the halls I would get out
of the way.
I
think the most horrifying thing about this future scenario is that most people
don’t even know what a book is. Everything is being read on electronic tablets.
I might spend a lot of time writing and reading on a screen but I can’t imagine
not reading from a physical book. For one thing, books don’t crash like
machines do.
What
really made me mad was how unreasonable Max’s mom was being. She kept going on
an on about how robots and computers aren’t reliable and how people are too
dependent on technology while she trusts a computerized grading system over her
own daughter.
It’s
never said what specific year this story is taking place in; I’m guessing
sometime around 2040 to 2050.
No comments:
Post a Comment