Set in Hawaii, C.S. Fuqua's Big Daddy's Gadgets is a great read about teenager Josh and his tinkering grandfather, Big Daddy, who is building a time machine. Josh thinks it's so that Big Daddy can be with his late wife, Big Mama, which might have been in the back of Big Daddy's mind.

In the meantime, Josh is dealing with yet another new school and another kind of prejudice. He also is dealing with political fallout his mother, a US arms negotiator, generates when she turns her back on her country and becomes a leader of the new sovereign nation, the Republic of Hawaii, so that she can negotiate the ultimate coup: world peace. Unfortunately, a tiny emergin country creates a weapon that disrupts the racial balance of the world and all
hell breaks out. Into this confusion enters Big Daddy's time machine to send Josh and his girlfriend 600 years into the future, and the boy takes a long hard look at his own society.

Through it all, Fugua presents likeable characters placed in situations that allow him to comment with wry wit on socio-political problems in this country. It is a refreshing look at the world through the eyes of a youngster on the verge of manhood.

Fugua's next book, Music Fell on Alabama, a trade paperback, that will be out next year, is a look at the musical influence of the Muscle Shoals, Alabama, recording industry.