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mehsi's review
5.0
Oh wow, I so enjoyed this book. What would you do if you get a big package containing a 3d printer that is actually sentient? Oh my. Especially if you are a kid? Of course, candy! But then bigger projects, until you can just see it all go wrong and you are eager to see how bad it will get. :P
I felt sorry for the kids, and the mom, for what they had to go through with the dad missing/gone away. I just loved how the book got more and more fun, and even more exciting with each page. The projects were fun, and I loved how the sibling relationship was between these characters.
The ending was exciting, and I definitely couldn't stop reading anymore. I just had to continue. The only thing I would have loved to see would be illustrations.
I felt sorry for the kids, and the mom, for what they had to go through with the dad missing/gone away. I just loved how the book got more and more fun, and even more exciting with each page. The projects were fun, and I loved how the sibling relationship was between these characters.
The ending was exciting, and I definitely couldn't stop reading anymore. I just had to continue. The only thing I would have loved to see would be illustrations.
bookishfifi's review
4.0
If a government funded and built magical machine with the ability to make just about anything you desired landed in your lap, what would you as it to make? This is the dilemma the Fugue children face when, instead of a rabbit hutch for the yet-to-be-bought rabbits that Olly ordered from that auction site, an extremely expensive and top secret machine named Russell is delivered to the house.
Bird, Olly, and Stevie are soon up to their necks in trouble fending off things like robots and rogue drones, all while looking after their baby sister and making sure their mum isn't too sad after their dad suddenly left them.
The Everything Machine is a rip-roaring, hilarious ride from start to finish, side-splittingly funny on one page and sad on the next, with all the siblings desperately missing their father while still trying to cope with school, homework, football practice and Mum's big pant business. The relationship between them is so wonderfully written, a pesky big sister trying to boss them around but still looking out for them and Stevie & Olly's rough-housing is fun, sometimes a bit vicious but never mean.
With common themes such as Stevie's addiction to an online game that everybody in the world seems to play through to children coping with their parent's separation, The Everything Machine is a great read with some of the best characters I've read this year. This is the first time I've read anything by Ally Kennen but it certainly won't be the last.
Bird, Olly, and Stevie are soon up to their necks in trouble fending off things like robots and rogue drones, all while looking after their baby sister and making sure their mum isn't too sad after their dad suddenly left them.
The Everything Machine is a rip-roaring, hilarious ride from start to finish, side-splittingly funny on one page and sad on the next, with all the siblings desperately missing their father while still trying to cope with school, homework, football practice and Mum's big pant business. The relationship between them is so wonderfully written, a pesky big sister trying to boss them around but still looking out for them and Stevie & Olly's rough-housing is fun, sometimes a bit vicious but never mean.
With common themes such as Stevie's addiction to an online game that everybody in the world seems to play through to children coping with their parent's separation, The Everything Machine is a great read with some of the best characters I've read this year. This is the first time I've read anything by Ally Kennen but it certainly won't be the last.
leahmichelle_13's review
4.0
The Everything Machine is one of the most adorable middle-grade novels I’ve ever read, but not only that, it really got me thinking. If I had a machine that could literally give me anything and everything, what would I get? I JUST DON’T KNOW. More books? ALL THE BOOKS? Yankee Candles? MONEY? Money is a good one because it means I could stop working, still buy books and support authors (hurrah!). Surely that would just fix everything? But as it were for Olly, Stevie and Bird, having everything you’ve ever wanted isn’t all it’s cracked up to be…
I loved everything about this book – the characters were so realistic, from Olly, Stevie and Bird, to their harassed mum, who spends more time on the baby than she does her other kids, but not in a vacant/absent way, because she is always there, always wondering what’s going on with the other three. The machine itself. I have much love for machines with minds of their own (see: Iron Man) and Russell was fantastic. Witty, huffy, sarcastic – he needed more lines! He honestly made me laugh, with his one-liners and stroppy teenage moods.
Ally Keenan has written such a good story here. Everything was pitch perfect, there was action and adventure, there were funny moments, emotional moments, times where you could really understand that these kids were just children whose greatest wish in life wasn’t money or fame or whatever else the machine could give you, but a happy family life. That’s the moral of the story for me – a machine may be able to give you everything your heart desires, but that doesn’t mean it’ll make you happy. A bit deep for a kids book? Sure, but it’s always an important lesson to learn.
I loved everything about this book – the characters were so realistic, from Olly, Stevie and Bird, to their harassed mum, who spends more time on the baby than she does her other kids, but not in a vacant/absent way, because she is always there, always wondering what’s going on with the other three. The machine itself. I have much love for machines with minds of their own (see: Iron Man) and Russell was fantastic. Witty, huffy, sarcastic – he needed more lines! He honestly made me laugh, with his one-liners and stroppy teenage moods.
Ally Keenan has written such a good story here. Everything was pitch perfect, there was action and adventure, there were funny moments, emotional moments, times where you could really understand that these kids were just children whose greatest wish in life wasn’t money or fame or whatever else the machine could give you, but a happy family life. That’s the moral of the story for me – a machine may be able to give you everything your heart desires, but that doesn’t mean it’ll make you happy. A bit deep for a kids book? Sure, but it’s always an important lesson to learn.
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