50 pages • 1 hour read
Dan GutmanThe Homework Machine
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: January
Snik’s family finds out on New Year’s Day that his father is being sent overseas. Snik is sad but stoic, “he was a soldier, right? You do what you’re ordered to do” (77). Before he leaves, Snik’s father gives him his chessboard and some books on chess.
Snik gets an email from his father, who is stationed in the Middle East, asking Snik, “how about a game of chess?” (81), with details of a website they can use. The codes look complicated, but, after some hesitation, Snik takes up the challenge and starts a remote chess game with his father.
At school, Snik gets annoyed with “this jerk” (83) Ronnie Teotwawki, who asks Snik why he is hanging around with Brenton. Snik tells Ronnie to mind his own business and threatens to “bust his head open” (83) if he doesn’t stop snooping.
Judy is upset that Snik’s dad is being sent to the Middle East, but she is quick to point out that she and Snik are not best friends and says Snik is all “gung-ho GI Joe about it” (78).
Judy says that they use Belch every day and that she never thinks about doing her own homework anymore. She remembers her mother explaining how she became addicted to smoking cigarettes, “little by little” (80), and admits that she is “becoming addicted to Belch in almost the same way” (80).
Jessica Martin, Judy’s best friend from kindergarten, asks Judy to meet her in the bathroom after lunch. Jessica is upset—she says that she sees Judy leaving school with “trailer trash” Kelsey. She asks Judy if Kelsey is her new best friend. Not sure what to do, Judy replies, “don’t be ridiculous. I could never be friends with Kelsey” (83). To try and make up, Judy calls Jessica after school to ask whether she wants to hang out, but Jessica says she has too much homework. When Jessica questions Judy about how she manages to finish her homework so fast, Judy fumblingly lies about doing it during the school day. The next day Judy sees Jessica leave school to do homework together with other girls.
Judy’s family has dinner together every evening where they sometimes discuss serious subjects, such as gun control. When Judy’s father brings up the subject of “knowing right from wrong” (87), Judy starts to feel physically sick and excuses herself from the table.
Brenton muses that instead of fighting wars, the leaders of opposing sides should play chess, so nobody has to die.
When Kelsey finds out that Snik’s father has been sent to the Middle East, she cannot stop crying. Kelsey’s father died years ago, and thinking about Snik’s dad in danger opens something inside her. She has not told anyone about her father, but she shares when classmates ask why she is upset and explains that she doesn’t want Snik’s “dad to die too” (79).
Kelsey’s friend Heather asks Kelsey to come over after school. Kelsey turns Heather down but can’t tell her why. Hurt, Heather asks Kelsey whether she is now friends with “that jerk” Judy and accuses Kelsey of becoming “goody-goody.” When Heather refers to Judy as stuck-up and snotty, Kelsey agrees and says that she isn’t friends with Judy. However, when Heather says she won’t be Kelsey’s friend if she hangs out with Judy, Kelsey pushes back—refusing to be friends with someone who dictates her social circle. Heather and Kelsey both get angry and end their friendship.
Kelsey admits to feeling a little guilty about Belch, but since they are not hurting anyone, she argues that “there are degrees of wrongness” (88), and they are only a “little wrong.”
Miss Rasmussen worries about Sam (Snik) when his father is sent overseas. She notices that he becomes withdrawn and “businesslike,” so she is thrilled when Sam starts playing chess with his father online. Not only does chess give Sam a connection to his father, but it is also a healthy hobby—something Miss Rasmussen thought Sam was missing before.
Ronnie still can’t believe that the members of D Squad are friends, so he decides to follow them to Brenton’s house after school. Ronnie sees Brenton “fussing” with his computer and the D Squad laughing and talking. Ronnie adamantly denies that he was the one who told the police about the machine.
Police Chief Rebecca Fish gets an anonymous call saying that a student at Grand Canyon school has created a machine that does their homework. Assuming it is a prank call, she keeps a record of the call and tells a colleague, but she thinks it is “a load of bull” (88) and moves on.
Chapter 6 Summary: February
Kelsey says she wants to share a secret with Judy and shows Judy her newly pierced belly button. Judy doesn’t like secrets and doesn’t like piercings. Even though she “almost threw up” (89), she manages to lie and say Kelsey’s belly button ring looks cool.
Judy’s feelings are hurt when Kelsey, Snik, and Brenton leave without her after school one day. As she rides over to Brenton’s house, she worries that they are trying to send her a message or cut her out of the group.
On Valentine’s Day, Judy gives Brenton a card and claims it is nothing when the class talks about it as if “Brenton and I were going to get married” (97).
When Miss Rasmussen splits up the D Squad into a new group, Judy panics. She believes that Miss Rasmussen knows about Belch. Judy feels “her life is over” (102) and says the stress makes her face break out.
Kelsey knows that Judy thinks her belly button piercing is disgusting, but she appreciates Judy’s attempt at lying.
When Kelsey tells Judy that she is being oversensitive about being left behind, Judy gets mad. Kelsey muses that Judy will end up with an ulcer and says that, unlike Judy, she can put things in perspective since she was with her father when he was killed by a snowmobile. Kelsey was six when the accident happened.
Miss Rasmussen gives the class a day off from homework, but the D Squad still (automatically) bikes over to Brenton’s house after school. When they remember that they have no homework, they play Ping-Pong and eat cookies. Kelsey admits that she is impressed by Brenton’s playing and that Brenton “constantly surprises you” (98).
Kelsey is laid-back about the graffiti (“D SQUAD ARE CHEATERS” [99]) that Snik finds in the boy’s bathroom. Judy is freaking out about Miss Rasmussen changing the class seating, so she calls another meeting—something Kelsey doesn’t appreciate. One day, when Kelsey is home alone, she gets a phone call from Milner. She has no idea how he got her number, so she hangs up, thinking he is a stalker.
Chapters 5-6 Analysis
Complications of not being honest—both to themselves and to others—arise for the D Squad in these chapters. When Snik’s father is sent to the Middle East, Judy feels sad but is quick to point out that they are “not best friends or anything” (78). The thought of Snik’s father in danger brings up memories of Kelsey’s own late father and triggers an emotional response that allows Kelsey to shares her trauma with her peers. Her grief over the loss of her dad and her concern for Snik—she doesn’t want him to experience the same trauma she did—show The Power of Empathy and help her connect to Snik.
The group is stuck in their individual mindsets that they are not friends even though they spend every day after school together and are connected by the secret and lies surrounding Belch. Allegiances to their disparate social groups are tested. Judy’s friend Jessica questions their friendship and calls Kelsey “trailer trash,” and Kelsey’s friend Heather refers to Judy as “a stuck-up jerk” (85). Judy and Kelsey both deny being friends with each other and agree with the insults. However, when Heather gives Kelsey an ultimatum, Kelsey shuns Heather—not appreciating being told who to hang out with, but also because she and Judy are becoming friends. When Judy sees Jessica hanging out with other people, she calmly accepts that they aren’t friends anymore. Both Kelsey and Judy are no longer part of their original social groups because of their “addiction” to Belch, but also because of their growing friendship, which they have yet to acknowledge.
Guilt about cheating starts to weigh heavily on Judy, who knows that what they are doing is wrong, but she is unable to stop, even after Ronnie’s graffiti saying, “D SQUAD ARE CHEATERS” (99). Kelsey is better than Judy at keeping things in perspective and sees what they are doing as a “little” wrong. She reasons that they are not hurting anyone. Kelsey saw her father get killed in a snowmobile accident when she was six, so her threshold for getting upset about “small” things, like rumors or cheating on homework, is much higher than Judy’s. Kelsey recognizes that Judy has not faced true adversity yet.
The upward trajectory of the D Squad’s friendship is shown by Judy’s concern when the other three leave school without her. If Judy didn’t care, then she would not be worried that they left without her or relieved when Kelsey says they looked for her before leaving. When Snik brings in his chessboard to ask for help with the ongoing game with his father, Brenton comments that Snik is “smarter than he gives himself credit for” (94); he’s recognizing positive attributes in a peer who used to simply annoy him. When Judy gives Brenton a silly Valentine’s card, Snik’s feeling are slightly hurt that he didn’t get one from her too; he cares for Judy despite the jokes. When Miss Rasmussen gives the class a homework vacation, there is no need for the D Squad to stay at Brenton’s house without homework, but they do—playing Ping-Pong and eating cookies—just like a group of old friends. The group is no longer using Brenton to access Belch.
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By Dan Gutman
