MMGM- Perry Homer Ruins Everything and Welcome to AI

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at

Unleashing Readers

Vrabel, Beth. Perry Home Ruins Everything

June 18, 2024 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers

E ARC Provided by Edelweiss Plus

Perry Homer DOESN'T really ruin everything... but his family does a good job at it. His parents, his dishonest lawyer Uncle Manny, his triplet cousins, his siblings Riley and Pauley-- they are all willing to take advantage of any situation, no matter how it impacts others. Recently, Manny won a trip to Lindsborg, Kansas, where various members of the Homer clan set fire to things and generally left havoc in their wake. Perry thinks he will finally get home to Pittsburgh, where he will reunite with his favorite teacher, Miss Penelope, and attend an interview at the Ithaca School for Scholars in New York. This, he thinks, could change his life. Instead, the family is thrown off the plane and placed on a "no fly" list. Struggling for money, the group pulls a scam in a local pawnshop, tricking the owner, Seamus Neptune, into giving them $9,000 for a worthless 1944 wheat penny. Manny has to gloat, so Seamus vows to get even with the family. They take off, spend some time in a luxury hotel, go to a carnival, and buy a run down van off of two older artists. Perry thinks they will now head home, but when he wakes up after a snooze, is horrified to find that they are in Florida. The father wants everyone to see the ocean, and while Perry is impressed, he still doesn't want to let Miss Penelope down. We do learn that part of the family's motivation for their peripatetic lifestyle is that the mother battled cancer when Perry was nine, and we get inklings that perhaps this has returned. With Seamus Neptune hot on their trail, problems with the van, and frequent bulletins on the news alerting everyone to a large reward for turning in the "Bad Family", the group ends up at a campground in the woods, and then at Cindy's Cat Sanctuary. Cindy is an irascible and bitter woman who runs a rescue for large cats, having battled for laws that deny (and rightly so) most people the opportunity to own these animals. The Homers settle in fairly well, with the mother cooking (all while usually wearing the unnamed youngest Homer in a front pack; the baby makes frequent appearances), the father helping out, and Home and the triplets doing chores. With a little time to think, and a feeling of helplessness about his trip to Ithaca, Perry goes over his list of people he has hurt, and tries to call a number of them to apologize, with Cindy's support. When Seamus Neptune closes in on the family and their landlord in Pittsburgh is on the news saying they will be evicted, will they be able to wiggle their way out of the charges against them and forge a new life in Florida? And will Perry be able to attend the Ithaca School, where Miss Penelope will be a teacher?
Strengths: Fans of Kinney's The Long Haul and The Getaway will enjoy the Homer's frenetic travels and the highjinks in which they find themselves embroiled. Perry is a much more developed and likeable character than Greg Heffley, and his desire to please his teacher and to be able to have a life where he wakes up in the same bed every day is palpable. He does a good job trying to take care of younger siblings, and he clearly cares about his parents, even though they constantly thwart his desire to make something of his life. The slow reveal of the mother's cancer struggle help the reader to understand why the Homers have chosen the road less traveled. This is generally upbeat and positive, and ends on a fairly happy note, making it stand out from most of middle grade literature. I also appreciated that Perry is heading into high school, since middle grade readers would much rather read about older characters, but can't really turn to the Young Adult books of 2024, which are very mature.
Weaknesses: There is a LOT going on in this book. Vrabel manages to structure this in a way that makes sense, and Perry's desire to get back home provides a connecting thread to all of their adventures, but some inclusions, like one of the cousins deciding to join an Amish community, could have been left out in order to streamline the plot. It bothered me more than it should have that the baby didn't have a name, but this does speak to the turmoil and uncertainty in the family's life.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoy characters who have to deal with scheming, difficult families, like Korman's July 2024 Faker or Schreiber's 2015 Con Academy. We could really use a lot more books in middle grade about well meaning grifters, I think. Tweens are perfect for the role of "con man with a heart of gold".

Davey, Owen and Dugal, Matthieu. Welcome to AI: What is Artificial Intelligence and How Will It Change Our Lives?

June 4, 2024 by Wide Eyed Editions

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

This picture book style nonfiction offers a lot of information on Artificial Intelligence and its history, going as far back as Ada Lovelace and her early efforts concerning computation. Included are the first time the term "robot" was used by the Czechs, and the coining of the term "Artificial Intelligence" in 1955. On heavily illustrated pages, we get snippets of information that follow the long journey of technology and its use, including computers playing chess and ghosts purportedly hiding in algorithms! Deep fakes, "bot or not" and even thanatotechnologies are addressed, keeping in mind not only how these were developed, but how they have impacted everyday life. There is a concluding chapter on problems of AI, including pollution and the possibility of robot soliders! 

This reminded me a bit of Ignotofsky's The History of the Computer, but had a more manageable amount of information for middle grade readers to consume. There's lots of good descriptions or tech that kids might know about but not fully understand, making this a great choice for techies and casual readers alike. I'll definitely buy a copy even though I'm a little on the fence about the illustration style. I loved it, but it did remind me a bit of Robert Kraske's The Story of the Dictionary, and gave me flashbacks to the 1970s. Personally, I would have gone with a book design that embraces the gray and taupe design aesthetic of the 2020s, but this is certainly more colorful and engaging. Considering that I've had students try to hand in short stories written by Chat GPT, this is a book that would be great to have on hand, now AND twenty years in the future.