Spare Parts

October 6, 2014
Davis (Entrenched) offers a forceful portrait of four Mexican American teens from an impoverished neighborhood in Phoenix who became engineers and won first place in a national NASA-sponsored robotics competition. Despite their meager funds and lack of experience, these high school students, with the support of two teachers, succeed beyond all expectations, defeating well-funded teams like the one from MIT. Throughout the book, Davis gives almost equal time to the rising tide of anti-immigrant feeling in Arizona and around the nation. These young men, all but one of who are undocumented, are painfully aware that their place in the spotlight may garner unwanted scrutiny by immigration officials. Despite their amazing win, their options continue to be severely constrained. The final chapters, which document what happened after the accolades and fanfare faded, really capture the character of these young men. Davis takes what could have been another feel-good story of triumphant underdogs and raises the stakes by examining the difficulties of these young immigrants in the context of the societal systems that they briefly and temporarily overcame. Agent: Bonnie Nadell, Hill Nadell Literary Agency.

October 15, 2014
The story of four high schoolers from the wrong side of Phoenix who built a robot, entered it in a national competition that included such prestigious schools as MIT, and won.Wired contributing editor and Epic magazine co-founder Davis explores the lives of four teenagers who could have easily fallen through the cracks but instead managed to channel their creative energy into a preposterous victory in a much-regarded robotic competition. The author lets the narrative grow organically: Nothing came easily; brainstorms didn't save the day, but ingenuity did; there was anger, poverty and neglect, as well as the quandary of U.S. immigration policy, which, when this drama was taking place, 2004, was actively spawning xenophobic vigilante groups. "[S]tudents who were living in the country illegally could be sought out and detained...Even a seemingly harmless summer science competition bore life-altering risks," writes Davis. There were also intergroup struggles that had to be overcome, as the author rightly points out that since these boys didn't have deep pockets, they had to fall back on cooperation and ingenuity and the help, guidance and advice of two mentors. There were also a few angels in the picture, scientists who lent their valuable equipment and wisdom to the project; they didn't give the boys the answers, but they helped point them in the right direction. Always hovering in the background of the story, and often intruding to the front of the action, is the Border Patrol, as well as "the tractor-beam pull of poverty and low expectations." This is the everyday life of the illegal immigrant, but these immigrants are trying to win the Marine Advanced Technology Education Robotics Competition. What motivated those involved and what impressed the judges was "that there was no reason to come up with a complex solution when an elementary one would suffice." Well-handled by Davis: both heart gladdening and a challenge to start making sense of national immigration policy.

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November 1, 2014

Wired editor Davis narrates the stories of four undocumented Latino high school students who beat MIT to win a prestigious national robotics competition. These teenagers glued together an underwater robot out of scavenged parts and PVC pipes, using tampons to absorb leaks. Their triumph against the odds unfolds against a troubled backdrop of poverty, faltering schools, border patrol checkpoints, and the omnipresent risk of deportation. Brought into Arizona by Mexican parents seeking a better future, Oscar, Cristian, Lorenzo, and Luis owed their achievement to creative problem solving, dedication, and inspiring teachers, including an Iranian immigrant named Fredi Lajvardi. The boys' story partakes of the cliched but characteristically American underdog genre, but the author is quick to point out that brains and hard work can achieve an uncertain future at best for these undocumented minors and 1.4 million others like them. Lacking visas, even the best and brightest must fear deportation and struggle to find employment or attend college. Placed in context, the teenagers' achievement in robotics reflects the aspirations of generations of "DREAMers," individuals who meet the general requirements of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. VERDICT A gratifying human interest story that calls attention to the plight and promise of America's undocumented youth.--Michael Rodriguez, Hodges Univ. Lib., Naples, FL

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Starred review from November 15, 2014
Reality is complicated, notes Wired magazine contributing editor Davis in this powerful chronicle of four West Phoenix teenagers who proved they knew more about what to do with spare parts than the leaders of the country they called home. In 2003, Lorenzo Santilian, Oscar Vaquez, Christian Arcega, and Luis Arranda had been all but written off by Arizona's educational and political systems. Children of Mexican immigrants who had been brought into the U.S. illegally, they found themselves attending a severely underfunded barrio school. Yet in 2004 they scraped together used-car parts and created a funny-looking but impressively functional underwater robot that won first placeand national recognitionin the prestigious, NASA-sponsored Marine Advanced Technology Education Robotics Competition, overcoming competition that included MIT engineering students. All things being equal, these four engineering geniuses should have been able to write their own tickets to the best universities in the country. But all things are not equal. Far from it. Davis pulls no punches as he describes the grim sociopolitical atmosphere that allows the oppression of talented people for no morally acceptable reason. The four young inventors and their struggles helped spur the DREAMers movement, and their story will also be told in a forthcoming Hollywood movie. This is important reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)