Review By: Anonymous
Author: David Barclay Moore
Published: 2022, Knopf Books for Young Readers
Genre: Adventure, Realistic Fiction, Middle Grade Fiction, African American Family, Discrimination & Prejudice, Poverty & Homelessness, LGBTQIA+, STEM, Camps Fiction
Audience: 6, 7, 8
Triggers: None
Summary: Javari knew that West Virginia would be different from his home in Bushwick, Brooklyn. But his first day at STEM Camp in a little Appalachian town is still a shock. Though run-ins with the police are just the same here. Not good. Javari will learn a lot about science, tech, engineering, and math at camp. And also about rich people, racism, and hidden agendas. But it’s Cricket, a local boy, budding activist, and occasional thief, who will show him a different side of the holler—and blow his mind wide open. Javari is about to have that summer. Where everything gets messy and complicated and confusing . . . and you wouldn’t want it any other way.
Review: I personally enjoyed this book for a middle school (grades 6-8) read. The author wove together so many social issues – insecurity, STEM, prejudice, racism, white supremacy, greed, environmental issues and unlikely friendship and a hint of sexual orientation – with thoughtfulness and understanding. The story is told from the main character’s perspective which helps the reader understand life as Javari Harris, a 12-year-old boy from Brooklyn, who is self-conscious about being cross eyed, short, and his overall appearance but, who is gifted in math and science. This gift gets him accepted to a summer STEM camp at Appalachian Ridge Christian College in Horsewhip Hollow, West Virginia. This means he will leave his younger sister, his parents, and his sickly grandfather for two weeks just as his parents have received an eviction notice. A lot happens while Javari is at this camp. The first day at camp while walking just outside of campus, he is stopped by campus security. He felt like he was back in Brooklyn being questioned and patted down because of the color of his skin. The campers are instructed to form groups, the project is to produce an app that everyone, every human cares about, however, Javari and two girls are not chosen so they are forced to be a group. To Javari, they “seemed like the rejects”. His roommate snores, Javari cannot sleep so, Javari decides the nighttime would be a good time to explore the grounds and ends up, after a few tense moments, meeting Cricket. Cricket would be the character that would show Javari a whole different world, nothing like in Brooklyn. It is through their nightly adventures Javari begins to learn about prejudice, poverty, friendships, family, the environment and bad drinking water as well as how the greed of big business costed many men their lives. He also learned about the Black miners who died from breathing silica while digging the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel. During the day, the STEM camp groups play a video game, playing against each other, and during this he learns just how cruel kids can be and how names can hurt people. Javari wants their project to be about water, the bad drinking water in Horsewhip Hollow. One of the girls doesn’t like the idea and Javari discovers her family is connected to the miners dying and contaminating the water. Though Javari and his partners didn’t win first place for the project, they did conquer and defeat the last opponent in the video game. Through the two weeks at camp, Javari learned that everything not on a piece of paper is messy and the answer to he and Cricket’s equation is infinity.
