Spare Parts (Young Readers' Edition): The True Story of Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and an Impossible Dream
By (Author) Joshua Davis
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc
12th December 2023
United States
Children
Non Fiction
Childrens / Teenage personal and social topics: Multicultural
Childrens / Teenage general interest: Biography and autobiography
Childrens / Teenage general interest: Science and technology
Childrens / Teenage personal and social topics: Friends and friendships
629.89207979173
Hardback
160
Width 143mm, Height 217mm, Spine 19mm
268g
In 2004, four undocumented Mexican teenagers arrived at the Marine Advanced Technology Education Robotics Competition at the University of California, Santa Barbara. No one had ever suggested to Oscar, Cristian, Luis, or Lorenzo that they would amount to much-but two inspiring high school science teachers convinced these kids to use their talents and build something grander than their wildest dreams: an underwater robot. Up against some of the best collegiate engineers in the country, the four Phoenix teenagers scraped together meager funds and their tech classroom's spare parts to astound not only the competition's judges, but themselves. This young readers' edition highlights these students' insurmountable courage, intelligence, and determination to succeed, even when their country was against them. More timely now than ever, Spare Parts: Young Readers' Edition is an accessible introduction to immigration and STEM, adapted by a prominent Mexican-American author.
"This adaptation of Davis' adult book of the same name shifts focus among the four boys and offers explicit statements of what each gains from these experiences, making for an accessible and relatable read for the young target audience . . . An afterword provides bittersweet where-are-they-now updates, where engineering careers were not guaranteed, immigration woes continue, and COVID leaves its mark, but the boys have grown into mature adults." --The Bulletin, starred review
"Adapted from a popular adult title that inspired a feature film and a documentary . . . this thrilling tale offers an intimate glimpse into the difficulties faced by many young immigrants . . . Readers will be rooting for these hardworking, determined teens. An underdog story makes for high drama in this relatable take on the source material." --Kirkus Reviews
Reyna Grande is the author of the bestselling memoir The Distance Between Us, where she writes about her life before and after she arrived in the United States from Mexico as an undocumented child immigrant. The much-anticipated sequel, A Dream Called Home, was released in 2018. Her other works include the novels Across a Hundred Mountains and Dancing with Butterflies, which were published to critical acclaim. Her books have been adopted as the common read selection by schools, colleges and cities across the country. reynagrande.com Joshua Davis has been a contributing editor at Wired for a decade and is the cofounder of Epic magazine, where his work was nominated for a National Magazine Award for feature writing. He has also written for The New Yorker and other periodicals, and his writing is anthologized in the 2012 edition of Best American Science and Nature Writing, as well as in the 2006, 2007, and 2009 editions of Best Technology Writing. He is the New York Times-bestselling author of Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream and The Underdog, a memoir about his experiences as an arm wrestler, backward runner, and matador. He lives in San Francisco with his family.