The Everything Machine

When a special delivery addressed to Olly arrives it is not what he is expecting.  Instead of a rabbit hutch the parcel contains a massive and complex 3 D printing machine marked DEADLY. DO NOT TAMPER WITH CONTENTS.  Setting it up in the old mobile home in their garden named ‘Mob’ Olly starts imagining what incredible possibilities he could create with this machine. But he can’t keep it a secret for long as his younger brother Stevie has spotted it and begs for the first object made to be a Space Hound, one of the characters from a computer game MAZZO he and his siblings adore playing. Then their older sister Bird discovers ‘Russell’ and realizing that it won’t be long before someone comes looking for it they decide to make good use of the machine before this happens.

They manage to create plenty of sweets and even a swimming pool.  But they soon realise that printing everything you could possibly want comes with responsibilities and additional problems they did not anticipate.   And how can they prevent their mother noticing what is going on?  Then they have the brilliant idea of printing their Dad as they are all missing him very much as he had walked out on them two months previously.  But the Dad-bot Mister Rob seems to have a mind of its own and gets them all into terrible scrapes including winning the best dancer prize at the school disco even outwitting Russell.   The plot does become rather far-fetched and a mad-cap chase ensues when the MOD comes looking for their property.   Mister Rob kidnaps the children’s mum in a bid to make her happy and there is plenty of fun when the children’s real Dad returns and has to rescue his wife from his robot twin.

This is an affectionate and light-hearted comedy adventure that children will love.  The comic opportunities are plentiful. The family relationships are spot-on with the knowing older sister and annoying younger brother and the printer Russell has his own personality too.  It does descend into farce at times but is overall a hugely enjoyable read.