Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine [Paperback]

jay williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1958

Childrens book

Product Details

• Paperback: 122 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Book Services; 1ST edition (1958)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590468901
• ISBN-13: 978-0590468909
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #542,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book, in line with today's educational theory..., November 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine (Hardcover)

I loved this book as a kid. It is a bit corny, but the message it relays about experiential and constructive learning is consistent with educational theory of the 90's. Knowledge is often best attained when the student (at whatever age) helps to construct it themselves rather than having it handed to them to memorize. Kids don't have to know this to enjoy the book! Highly recommended for grade school readers or students in instructional technology...

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A PC in 1959, January 30, 2005

By 

Alexander Ehrlich (Jerusalem Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine (Paperback)

My reading of "Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine" back in the early 1960s eventually led me to becoming in a computer programmer. The book's "Homework Machine" was a computer and the all too cursory description given in the book on how it worked inspired me to go to the library and read through the entire section on computers.

Remember that this book was written in 1959 when computers were REAL computers, taking up an entire large room, with tape drives, blinking lights and lots of buttons. The idea of a computer so small (according to the book's illustration, about the size of a refrigerator) was science fiction at the time. I'm not sure how a kid today is going to react to the marvel of the computer in Danny Dunn's basement when they have one on their desk.

But the book holds up remarkably well. There is a nice reversal of the traditional sex roles of the time with Danny's best friend Joe writing poetry while his other best friend Irene is interested in science. The point made by author Jay Williams that computer don't "think" but merely process information we feed into them is just as true for today's PCs as it was for the IBM giants of yesteryear.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The machine every kid would love to have, November 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine (Hardcover)

I read this ages ago as a kid. Oh, how I wished the homework machine were real!

I loved the Danny Dunn series of books. Every trip to the local library was filled with anticipation of a new, fantastic adventure. Great stuff.