THE TRUTH AS TOLD BY MASON BUTTLE by Laura Connor

I just love a book that can make me laugh hysterically and cry like a wee little baby and Mason got me on both counts. I loved Mason in all his literal, sweaty. glory. I loved how he persevered and how he stayed kind to others even when it wasn’t reciprocated. It hit me so hard the way he stayed with Matt because he knew he got scared by himself even though Matt was a complete sociopath. (I totally called that!) 

The secondary characters were beautifully drawn. I loved Calvin, Ms Binney, and Grandma in particular. Uncle Drum and Shayleen made me crazy, but they added a lot to the family situation. I was low-grade grossed out by the tumbledown - or was it crumbledown? - and I had to focus on Grandma’s kitchen when I pictured it. I was flummoxed by Shayleen at first, but it seems to me that she showed that while Uncle Drum was kind of stalled in his life, he was still reaching out to try to help others. 

The details about the cave paintings were a pure delight. The physics behind the refurb of the cellar were fascinating as well. I could have lived without the description of how Calvin was wedged in that pipe though!

Amazon places the age level of readers as 9-11 and I concur. Artificial intelligence has been all over the educational news. Looking at curriculum applications for this book I started thinking about how we need to talk to students about how these tools can be used in productive ways, rather than just focusing on the ways that they could upend education.

With that in mind, I used ChatGPT to sort through the Massachusetts state standards to find those that would relate to the book. I was surprised at the accuracy. 

Massachusetts State Standards that could be used in conjunction with The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle include:

ELA:

RL.6.1 - Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text

RL.7.3 - Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot)

Social Studies:

SS.6.1 - Examine how economic, cultural, and political systems shape societies

SS.6.3 - Analyze the effects of poverty and inequality on individuals, families, and society

SS.6.5 - Analyze the consequences of development on the environment

I have been thinking about how art bots could be used with kids and I realized that the level of detail necessary to tell them what to draw would mean that a student would have to actually read the book to feed the machine enough details to get something relevant. I used this prompt:

Draw a cave painting of a big boy and a little boy being chased by three middle school lacrosse players who are throwing apples at them. 

I was given 5 different stills, two of which I used to make this. Clearly, Mason is too buff (and unsweaty) and there seems to be a disembodied arm among the bullies, but I thought it had a good feel to it. I am concerned about the summer reading program I coordinate at my school and how artificial intelligence is going to make cheating much more difficult to detect. But this exercise has given me a bit of hope.