Articles tagged "SPARE PARTS"
Required Friday Reading (8/10/18)
It’s important, now more than ever, to continue reading, reflecting, and engaging in open dialogue about the issues facing us all as a nation. Here are our picks to help you do just that:
A HOPE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE SEA: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival by Melissa Fleming
“This poignant tale of survival and loss gives immediacy to the plight of Syrian refugees. Fleming’s skillful writing brings new vividness to Doaa Al Zamel’s dramatic story. This book amply demonstrates why Al Zamel has since become a symbol of hope for other refugees. Fleming should be congratulated for bringing [this] inspiring and illuminating story to the page.” — Publishers Weekly
BUTTERFLY: From Refugee to Olympian – My Story of Rescue, Hope, and Triumph by Yusra Mardini
“BUTTERFLY is a powerful story of survival, inspiration, and hope with a resounding message: no one chooses to be a refugee; rather, horrific circumstances force ordinary people to take extraordinary measures to save themselves. This unforgettable memoir shines a spotlight on the refugee experience and the role sports can play in giving a voice to those affected by conflict throughout the world… Teens who enjoyed I AM MALALA will find another heroine in this inspirational memoir of a Syrian swimmer who became an advocate for refugees.” — Booklist, starred review
CITY OF THORNS: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp by Ben Rawlence
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year
“[A] remarkable book…Like Dadaab itself, the story has no conclusion. It is a portrait, beautifully and movingly painted. And it is more than that. At a time when newspapers are filled with daily images of refugees arriving in boats on Europe’s shores, when politicians and governments grapple with solutions to migration and erect ever larger walls and fences, it is an important reminder that a vast majority of the world’s refugees never get as far as a boat or a border of the developed world.” — Caroline Moorehead, The New York Times Book Review
IN THE COUNTRY WE LOVE: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero
“Guerrero relates her struggle to hold her life together, get through high school and college, and find her feet in the world—challenges that will resonate with many readers… [She] writes with humor and heartbreaking honesty. Offering readers the story she needed to hear as a child, Guerrero shines a light on this country’s flawed immigration system, eloquently calling for reform without diminishing her appreciation for the opportunities US citizenship has afforded her. A timely and enlightening read.” — Booklist
SPARE PARTS: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream by Joshua Davis
“A gratifying human interest story that calls attention to the plight and promise of America’s undocumented youth.” — Library Journal
“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.” — Publishers Weekly
ONE PERSON, NO VOTE: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson
“This whiplash-inducing chronicle of how a nation that just a few short years ago elected its first black president now finds itself in the throes of a deceitful and craven effort to rip this most essential of American rights from millions of its citizens.” — Booklist, starred review
2016 Texas Tayshas List
We’re proud to have four Young Adult novels on the 2016 Texas Tayshas Reading List!
ALL THE RAGE by Courtney Summers
MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME, edited by Stephanie Perkins
SPARE PARTS: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot and the Battle for the American Dream by Joshua Davis
THE TRAGIC AGE by Stephen Metcalfe
The Tayshas Reading List is a recommended reading list developed by public and school librarians from the Young Adult Round Table (YART). The purpose of the list is to encourage students in grades 9-12 to explore a variety of current books for recreational reading. Click here to view the full Tayshas list (downloadable PDF available).
March Medals Madness!
It’s March Madness and we’ve got brackets on the brain! We’re excited to see Arizona and North Carolina in the Sweet Sixteen, but we’re even MORE jazzed about ALA’s March Medals Madness where you can vote to predict the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction for a chance to win books AND money!
Click here to pick the three fiction and three nonfiction titles from the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medals longlist that you think will be named to the shortlist, as well as the two winners. The player matching the most titles named to the 2015 shortlist will win a $50 cash card and a full set of the 2015 shortlist titles.
If you need voting help, let us recommend Macmillan’s finest:
Nonfiction:
SPARE PARTS: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream by Joshua Davis
NO PLACE TO HIDE: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald
THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
Fiction:
SONG OF THE SHANK by Jeffery Renard Allen
THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANCES GODWIN by Robert Hellenga
THE ASSASSINATION OF MARGARET THATCHER by Hilary Mantel
LILA by Marilynne Robinson
Stay tuned for the shortlist announcement on April 6, 2015 to see if your picks were selected as shortlist titles and follow #ala_carnegie on Twitter (tag @ALA_Booklist) and Facebook for updates.
A Robot and a Dream
Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream by Joshua Davis
In 2004, four Latino teenagers arrived at the Marine Advanced Technology Education Robotics Competition at the University of California, Santa Barbara. They were born in Mexico but raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where they attended an underfunded public high school. No one had ever suggested to Oscar, Cristian, Luis, or Lorenzo that they might amount to much—but two inspiring science teachers had convinced these impoverished, undocumented kids from the desert who had never even seen the ocean that they should try to build an underwater robot.
And build a robot they did. Their robot wasn’t pretty, especially compared to those of the competition. They were going up against some of the best collegiate engineers in the country, including a team from MIT backed by a $10,000 grant from ExxonMobil. The Phoenix teenagers had scraped together less than $1,000 and built their robot out of scavenged parts. This was never a level competition—and yet, against all odds . . . they won!
But this is just the beginning for these four, whose story—which became a key inspiration to the DREAMers movement—will go on to include first-generation college graduations, deportation, bean-picking in Mexico, and service in Afghanistan.
Joshua Davis’s SPARE PARTS is a story about overcoming insurmountable odds and four young men who proved they were among the most patriotic and talented Americans in this country—even as the country tried to kick them out.
“This is important reading.”–Booklist, starred review
“A gratifying human interest story that calls attention to the plight and promise of America’s undocumented youth.”–Library Journal
“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.”–
Publishers Weekly
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Now a Major Motion Picture – In Theaters 1/16/15