Language PG (3 swears 0 'f'); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG (racist language including the N word).
BUYING ADVISORY: MS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
12yo Javari got into a 2 week STEM camp in West Virginia, sponsored by a small Christian College in the town of Horsewhip Holler - a far cry from his hometown of Brooklyn New York. Javari is super good at science, but is shy and doesn't make friends soon enough to get into a good group for the final project. He does, however, meet a local boy named Cricket, who gives him a look at what the black community of Horsewhip Holler is like. Javari gets more than a stem education that summer. He also learns about racism, activism, and sees that some things aren't all that different away from home.
Javari's experience at camp is complicated - I think my middle-grade gamers will like the story, as there is a cool game the kids are beta testing. I wonder, though, when he sleeps - sneaking out at night to meet up with Cricket after his roommate has gone to sleep, even attending a late-night book club? I wish he had been a bit older than 12 - sending him alone on a bus with transfers to make and then to arrive at the destination with no one there to meet him felt irresponsible, so I was suspect of the whole program. Setting aside these issues, I think it will be a good addition to a middle school library. Interesting that the cover reflects (pun intended) Moore's "The Stars Beneath Our Feet," and it contains some interesting elements of the history of African Americans in the Appalachians.
Javari and Cricket are black, Veer is Indian culture, Tuyet is Vietnamese culture. Rebecca is white.
Lisa Librarian
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