Book Review on "Spare Parts" by Joshua Davis: Triumph Over Adversity

Title and Biography

Spare Parts, a book by the famous author Joshua Davis, talks about immigrant Mexican-American boys who defied all odds to come top in a science competition. Joshua Davis has worked as a contributing editor at Wired for more than ten years as well as a co-founder of the Epic magazine. The author has as well worked for other firms such as Men's Health, The New Yorker, Men's Journal, Outside, Maxim, GQ, and Food & wine. Joshua's work has never gone unnoticed and has, as a result, won him many medals and competitions. In 2014, he topped that year's National Magazine Award in the category of"The Best American Science and Nature Writing." Other recognizable achievements include the 2009, 2007 as well and 2006 "The Best Technology Writing" awards. Joshua published his book, Spare Parts, in 2014, an inspiring story of the triumph of an immigrant robotics team. The book is among the best new books on the BBC and Amazon.

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In 2002, Joshua released a documentary titled “The Beast Within," a touching film about his earlier attempts to become a wrestling champion. In late 2003, he became a contributing editor at Wired, a few months after sneaking into Iraq to cover the war for Wired.

Book Summary

Young undocumented Mexican immigrants, a robot-building contest, and two inspiring teachers are the major issues that make the story. Born in Mexico and raised in Phoenix, four immigrant teenagers arrived at the University of California to attend the Marine Advanced Technology Education Robotics Competition (Davis, 2014). In their entire lives, these young boys did not have much to hope for, but two great science teachers managed to convince these undocumented and impoverished kids that a robotics competition was what they needed.

Compared to Porsche robots presented by the likes of MIT, their robot was ugly and hence named “stink”. The four boys' project was competing against MIT's, who had even received a project sponsorship worth $10, 000. The poor teenagers had put together materials out of scrap materials and built an award-winning robot, despite the stiff competition.

Regardless of their triumph with a winning robot and finishing high school top of the class, the four boys later face more challenges. With the strict immigration laws in the country, the teenagers were deported while some went on to graduate college and serve in the military (Davis, 2014). Spare Parts is a correct representation of people overcoming long odds to achieve great things. The genre of the book “Spare Parts" is a biography.

Key Ideas

Joshua Davis' Spare Parts presents several healthy ideas that affect real people. The United States administration, with its strict immigration laws, puts many barriers against undocumented youth who grow up in the country (Sheridan, 3). Among the four teenagers, one had a childhood dream of serving in the US army, only to learn that illegal immigrants are prohibited by law to serve in the military. During their early years, these teenagers were worried about being deported, despite their abilities and knowledge in problem-solving. All these problems are because their parents sneaked them into the country illegally, with the hope of giving them better lives and promising futures.

Another critical issue in the book is portrayed through the two teachers who guided and convinced the teenagers to take part in the competition. Since one of the teachers was Iranian-American, he once went through the same challenges as the kids, which helps him to understand their struggles. During his early school days, local students bullied the teacher. The robotics team is all seen as just poor outsiders, a position their teacher had once experienced, which made him the best fit. Attaining good grades is not a priority for kids experiencing challenging lives (Sheridan, 6). The two teachers had recognized the level of problem-solving capability in the teenagers and hence made use of it.

The Book Spare Parts communicates the idea of life as an outcast as well, with the four teenagers struggling the majority of their lives, only because they lacked papers. The entire book gives vital insights to the lives of undocumented immigrant kids and the problems they come across in their quest to become essential members of the community.

Themes

Adversity is one of the primary themes introduced in this book. Throughout their lives, the teenagers are faced with problems such as crossing the border themselves and discrimination by other kids since they looked different. Other themes, such as resilience, teamwork, and the American dream, are also introduced in the story (Sheridan, 13).

The role of these themes and ideas is to help readers apply the story to other settings and scenarios. They allow readers to understand the message of the book by applying the knowledge into past and future situations. The book appealed to me emotionally to great heights. Back in Mexico, the little teenagers missed their parents, who had crossed before them and later crossed the border on their own.

Works Cited

Davis, Joshua. Spare Parts: Four undocumented teenagers, one ugly robot, and the battle for the American dream. Macmillan, 2014.

Sheridan, Myra Infante. "First Opinion: Negotiating Risk and Reward in Davis's Spare Parts." First Opinions, Second Reactions, 9.1 (2016): 3. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1508&context=fosr