My Name Is Shingo: The Perfect Edition

Gr 10 Up–Satoru can hardly contain his excitement after a pair of seemingly primitive robots are installed at his father’s factory. While the coding frustrates his father, Satoru intuitively understands how to program the robot the workers have named Monroe, and he starts sneaking into the factory to experiment with more complex functions than just assembling parts. Satoru often brings his friend Marin along to show off his achievements, and there is definitely more to this mechanical being than any of them are aware of. Narrated by a future version of Monroe, which gives an overall haunted feel to the story, this is a poignant time to republish a work that examines the role of technology in society, and the ethics of artificial intelligence. There are some outdated exchanges between Satoru’s parents that are aggressive, and his father turns towards alcohol for all of life’s answers—good and bad—so the title sways older teen.