BookBrowse Reviews Spare Parts by Joshua Davis

BookBrowse:

Spare Parts is about four undocumented Mexican American students, two great teachers, and one robot-building contest.

I work as a resource room aide at an elementary school in Las Vegas, with one of the most impoverished student populations in the Clark County School District. More-than-average resources are allocated for it, including food bags on Fridays for the weekend, clothing, and vision checkups with free glasses if necessary. In this kind of setting, there's twofold curiosity and hope: Curiosity about what these students have already gone through in their lives, and hope that they can climb out of their hardships one day, stand atop them, and see what they can do in the world.

I thought about this as I read the terrific Spare Parts by Wired contributing editor Joshua Davis, about the Carl Hayden Community High School underwater robotics team from equally impoverished West Phoenix, Arizona. Although they face serious immigration problems - having been born in Mexico and living in the United States illegally – these kids find safety, wonder, togetherness and vast scientific knowledge in this team of their making.

Their teacher Fredi Lajvardi is Iranian-born, and fully understands what his students go through in trying to find their place in West Phoenix. Under Lajvardi's gentle guidance, those students - Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Oscar Vazquez, and Luis Aranda – build their confidence as they build a robot. They also learn about their own problem-solving capabilities, the generosity of people (who give donations), and, perhaps most importantly, that science is all about understanding the world and what is possible if you try from every angle: there can always be an answer that will work.

The story of these four boys is compelling reading, but Davis also hooks the reader with his richly-written, direct, succinct profiles of these students, as well as Lajvardi and Cameron (the science teacher who co-facilitates the team). The details of the Marine Advanced Technology Education Remotely Operated Vehicle Competition in 2004 are brilliantly rendered too (see Beyond the Book). In his technical details about building Stinky, the robot, and its subsequent operations, Davis doesn't talk down to the reader. He walks alongside, pointing out this function and that piece of PVC pipe; this laser range finder and those joystick wires. This is one of those science books that makes you feel smarter after reading it, with lasting knowledge.

Intertwined with this inspiring story is the grave issue of illegal immigration, Arizona's crackdown on it throughout the years, and how it affects a student like Oscar Vazquez, who, if found out, would be deported back to Mexico, a country he barely knows. Instead of the rhetoric that usually dominates such an issue, the human impact is well-represented here.

I know a few students at my school just like these incredible four. One, a 5th grader who's as voracious a reader as I am, expressed interest in reading a presidential novel I had talked about in a lecture to her class. I can't be sure how much of a difference I might make in letting her borrow that novel, but I have to hope and believe that, somehow, it will matter. It's the same way that Lajvardi matters to his students. He expands their interests by showing them what's possible in robotics and lets them roam happily, finding their own way. Let these four be the future our country will have.

This review first ran in the February 4, 2015 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.