Brainman

Betty Jo Schuler

Review by Molly

Red haired Randy O’Rourke is a pretty normal kid: he doesn’t much care for chores or homework. He does enjoy hanging out with his best friend Jake and he enjoys tinkering with things. Randy has already invented an injector to fill hot dogs with mustard, a page turner for turning pages of books, and a self cleaning fish bowl. So, what does Randy do? Why he builds himself a robot, of course. He builds himself a robot to do his chores and homework. And this is not just any old robot but a robot with blue glass eyes, a heart carefully painted on his chest and himself polished until he sparkles. This is Brain a robot whose blue eyes glisten when he feels hurt, red heart glows when he is praised and communicates by ‘mind talk’ with Randy. Not only that, Brain blinks when he is touched. Before long Randy is getting excellent marks on his homework and all his chores are done to perfection. On the other hand Randy is failing tests in his classroom and Mom and Dad are concern because Randy has too much free time to spend with Jake or in just sitting around and doing nothing. Mom is worried that Randy isn’t kind enough to the robot, and Dad is concerned that Randy’s muscles will turn to mush. Brain has been programmed to do many things when glitch after glitch begins to appear. It doesn’t take long before Brain is out of control and Randy must face some facts about both his robot and himself as well.

In Brainman writer Schuler has crafted an inviting tale sure to appeal to the funny bone of kids in the 10-14 year old set. Boys and girls alike can identify with Randy and his dislike for having to face his home and school responsibilities. Few kids relish either chores or homework. Schuler quickly sets the scene with Randy, Brain and Jake, Jacob Silverman, introduced from the outset. Randy’s parents and little sister Suzy appear within the first ten pages. Brain’s possibilities those programmed and those appearing on their own as well as his increasing glitches appear immediately.

Schuler draws the reader into the tale set down in Brainman with Randy’s description of Future World, an amusement park where he got his idea for having a robot of his own. Reader interest is maintained as Brain begins to show a personality of his own and Randy is forced to deal with realities of what he has created.

Vocabulary used on the pages of Brainman is well within the scope of most middle grade youngsters. The PDF format is easily used. Brainman should fit well into the free time reading program for the classroom, home schoolers and kids’ own pleasure reading as well as having value for a unit on responsibility and thinking ahead. Intuitive thinking and anticipating outcome are attributes often underdeveloped or completely lacking in most youngsters. Brainman may prove a valuable tool as parents and teachers guide youngsters toward critical thinking for anticipating outcome to action.