Hot damn, did I love this book when I was in grade school. I’d be surprised if any of my friends remember it, because it was published in 1958 … I’m not sure how it wound up in my hands in the early 1980’s. The eponymous “homework machine” depicted in the book was a 50’s-era computer owned by Professor Bullfinch, who was Danny’s mentor or father figure or … something.
This was actually the third in a series of “Danny Dunn” books published between 1956 and 1977. I read one other — “Danny Dunn and the Fossil Cave,” which I also liked a lot.
The authors were Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams, and they were quite good at their craft. Danny, along with his friends Joe and Irene, were pretty relatable characters to a kid in the second grade.