The Computer That Said Steal Me (ISBN 0-590-32636-8) is a 1983 Elizabeth Levy book about a boy who wants to get a chess computer in order to compete with his friends, but feels he must steal it because his parents cannot afford it. He devises a rather ingenious means of making the theft, but after the act is consummated, he is overcome with guilt and paranoia, similar to Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment.
The protagonist, a sixth grader named A...
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The Computer That Said Steal Me (ISBN 0-590-32636-8) is a 1983 Elizabeth Levy book about a boy who wants to get a chess computer in order to compete with his friends, but feels he must steal it because his parents cannot afford it. He devises a rather ingenious means of making the theft, but after the act is consummated, he is overcome with guilt and paranoia, similar to Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment.
The protagonist, a sixth grader named Adam, has recently moved with his family to Buffalo, New York from San Francisco, California. Adam attends St. Luke's, an expensive private school which he can only afford by virtue of the scholarship he receives as a consequence of his parents both working for the school. Thus, Adam finds himself the only lower-middle class student at an academy full of children of the wealthy. This disparity is often on his mind as he socializes with his friends, and it serves as the catalyst for the book's central plot and title. Adding insult to injury (at...
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