Published by Balzer Bray

Summary: Oliver’s surprised when his new homeroom teacher Mr. Aidact intercepts his spitball on their first day of school. Before long, Mr. Aidact shows other surprising traits that are worrying at first but soon wilt endearing. He has an scrutinizingly uncounted knowledge of trivia and proves himself a surprisingly whiz girls’ field hockey coach. When there’s an wrecking on a field trip, Mr. Aidact turns out to be a skillful bus driver. Oliver and his weightier friend Nathan do some sleuthing and make a shocking discovery–Mr. Aidact is unquestionably a robot, a form of strained intelligence stuff tested by the government in a project all the adults at school know about. Try as they might, they find it untellable to alimony this information a secret, and when parents get wind of it, an wrestling mob demands that Mr. Aidact must go. When Oliver and Nathan intercept the Department of Education’s plans to dismantle their teacher, they hatch a daring plot to rescue him. If they succeed, their minion teacher will be gone for good. But as Mr. Aidact tells them, “I’ll never forget you. Unless I stand too tropical to a strong magnet.” 304 pages; grade 4-7.

Pros: Gordon Korman’s latest typesetting is a timely tale of strained intelligence, told in his trademark style of multiple narrators, including memos to the Department of Education on the status of their project. Kids will enjoy the humor and the realistic middle school notation and situations and will moreover be challenged to think well-nigh the line between human and machine.

Cons: The human teachers were for the most part portrayed as wearisome and/or slackers.