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| Image: HarperCollins Publishers |
Middle Grade Monday features Cog by Greg van Eekhout. Cog may appear to be a twelve-year-old boy. In actuality, he's a six-month-old android. Cog, short for Cognitive Development is the brainchild of Gina, a scientist for UniMind. The two live together in a house where, Gina teaches Cog. Cog is hilariously literal. "I live in a room with a bed where I lie down. It is called a bedroom." Or, "The dishwashing machine just washes dishes. It is not good at conversation."
Cog is encouraged to learn from his mistakes. After he learns that good judgment comes from learning from mistakes, he decides to go out without Gina to make a lot of mistakes and learn from them. This results in disaster, for when he regains consciousness, he finds he is trapped inside the UniMind complex and Gina has disappeared. The scientists there are not as nice as Gina. They keep performing experiments on him, looking for something called the X-Module. He does not like these experiments and finds a way to escape the complex with the help of ADA, the sister he never knew he had, a trash-robot, a dog-robot and a robotic car.
This fast-paced adventure is often hilarious and very suspenseful. It is also surprisingly deep, prompting the reader to ponder philosophical questions like, what it means to be human and whether free will actually exists.
Hand Cog to a reader who wants action or a reader who wants to laugh or a reader who is into AI or...really, any reader. There's something to please all kinds. Oh! How I loved this book!
I loved it too!
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