What makes a good teacher? A great middle school teacher? A super-teacher? Well, a teacher should first of all know the subject matter that he’s teaching. Mr. Aidact, the new teacher at Brightling Middle School, has that covered. In fact, Mr. Aidact seems to know just about everything. His encyclopedic knowledge of algebra American history, French, song lyrics, trivia, and even field hockey (which he is assigned to coach) is amazing.

But to be a Superteacher requires more than knowledge. A teacher has to have the ability to impart that knowledge to students and to inspire or engage those students in learning for themselves. The jury is still out as to whether Mr. Aidact is capable of being that kind of teacher—and whether or not he can keep up with Oliver and Nathan, the resident pranksters at Brightling Middle School. And when Oliver becomes convinced that there is something fishy about Mr. Aidact, he’s determined to find out just who—or what–this new Superteacher really is.

The Superteacher Project is science fiction about the near-future and is therefore very up-to-date, dealing with current events, and that is both a positive and a negative. It’s probably going to be about as popular in the short term as Mr. Aidact because it deals with something that is the topic of the day, artificial intelligence. But it will just as quickly become dated as events progress. The characters in the books make references to Elon Musk, Motor Trend, and Jeopardy!, among other pop culture allusions. How long will those be known and understood cultural touchstones?

Nevertheless, it was a humorous and light-hearted read, with some thoughtful moments. I recommend it for the sake of entertainment and maybe as a way to open a conversation about AI and the implications it has for the future.