Slow On The Clicker

Slow on the Clicker is the story about how Stevie D, one of five white students at an all-black high school in rural North Carolina, and other students get drawn into the oddball educational program of a new school librarian from up north. The students are drawn into independent learning through chess, the internet, and Mr. Foleyas Socratic teaching style. The book details how the basketball team wins the state basketball championship, in large part because of things they learned from their principal, their librarian, and a dedicated math teacher, as well as their athletic ability. The novel concludes with students learning to really understand the Civil War, by close and personal study of a battle that happened near their town, in which black men their age fought and died for the Confederacy. Readers will know these people, and enjoy the way Stevie D views them and speaks about them, both the teachers and his fellow students.