LCE 6th grade Electronic Book Review

Student Reviewer’s Name: Kenneth N.
Date of Review: 2/26/07
Complete Book Title: Eager
Author of Book: Helen Fox
Year Book was published: 2004
Genre: Fiction (Sci-Fi)
Student Rating of Book (1 the highest, 5 the lowest): 2

Main Conflict of Story:
Gavin Bell and his family are having a problem with their robot, Grumps. As a friend of a famous professor, Professor Ogden, gives them a prototype robot, Eager, who can learn from his mistakes, to help Grumps out. The recently released BDC4’s have started to act oddly, so Eager goes undercover to find out what’s going on.

Setting of the Story:
It all starts out in the suburbs, in Wynston Avenue at the end of the 21st century, to be exact. There, Gavin Bell and his family reside, in a house made of glass and steel. After receiving Eager, there world seems to enlarge as they go to the city and Professor’s laboratory.

Main Characters and the part they play in the book:
1. Gavin Bell
He lives with his family in their house made of glass and steel, which his father had designed. He accompanies EGR3, or Eager, during most of this story.
2. EGR3 / Eager
Eager is a prototype robot, designed to be able to learn, as a person would, and have emotions. Professor Ogden is one of the top scientists, who made EGR3. EGR1 and EGR2 were also created by the professor but contained a flaw. EGR3 was the first robot with no such flaw in his programming.

Are the characters believable and interesting?
Gavin is partially believable and very interesting to read about most of the time. He gets involved in many interesting situations with Eager. Eager is obviously fictional but how he feels, how he reacts, how he understands the moment, is very believable. The way he is learning throughout the book was constantly keeping me flipping pages.

One quotation from the book:
I chose the quotation on page 243. “It’s been a long time since I had anything to do with these robots. I can assure you that things will be different from now on.” This is when Eager meets with Professor Ogden and they have a little chat.

Good reasons to read the book:
I think that those who enjoy adventurous books should read this book. Others who like to read fiction should give this book a try, if not read it all. Even for those who don’t know what they like, I would recommend this book.

Any Reasons not to read the book?
I suppose if you like more realistic books, biographies, etc. then this wouldn’t seem interesting and would seem like a waste of time. Other than that, I think that maybe the storyline is lacking something.

Did you like this book?
Overall, this book was entertaining with its constant questions about the characters in the story, constant threats to Eager and the Bell family, and how Eager learns to master his unique ability to learn.

1. Student Reviewer’s Name: Zack Z.
2. Date of review of book: 6/14/07
3. Complete Book Title: Eager
4. Author of Book: Helen Fox
5. Year the book was published: 2001
6. Genre: Science Fiction
7. Student rating of the book (1 the highest, 5 the lowest): 2

8. Main conflict in the book:
SafeCo, a company Molly’s dad works for, is making new robots to replace their old ones. The problem is that the robots want to over throw the humans

9. Setting of the book: (place and time)
In England in 2100 A.D.

10. Main Characters and part they play in the book:
(1)Molly: Eager’s owner.
(2) Eager: The brand new robot, Takes over as robot when grumps becomes old.

11. Are the characters believable and interesting?
Eager is not believable because he is a robot, but he is interesting because he has his own emotions.

12. One excellent direct quotation from the book: (include who said it, page number, and use
quotation marks!)
“ Molly knew Eager would be a help to their family, and maybe the town.” Pg. 74

13. Good reasons to read the book:
It is a great science fiction book with a great plot and resolution.

14. Any reasons not to read the book?
A reason not to read this book would be because the characters are not believable.

Did you like this book or not? And why….
I like this book because it is suspenseful, in the future, and is science fiction.