Race, class, and hormones combine and combust when a Harvard freshman
and his two friends attempt to join the staff of the Harpoon, the
school's iconic humor magazine.
Around Harvard Square is the winner of the NAACP Image Award for
Outstanding Literary Work (Youth/Teens)!
Around Harvard Square has been named a 2020 Honor Book by the
Paterson Prize for Books for Young People
"A smart, satirical novel about surviving the racial and cultural
tensions ratcheted up in the elite Harvard hothouse. Farley has created
a marvelously engaging and diverse set of characters, at the center of
which is a nerdy Jamaican American with a philosophical bent and his
cohort of oddballs struggling to win a spot on Harvard's brainy humor
magazine, which provides a springboard for Farley to dive into the
ethics of comedy, among other subjects."
--National Book Review, included in Monday's 5 Hot Books
"For anyone who likes satire, this quick-witted tale...catches a bundle
of truths about a very particular and powerful corner of our world."
--New West Indian Guide
"Around Harvard Square [is] C.J. Farley's fun novel about an
exceptional Jamaican student-athlete facing class and race issues to get
a spot on an elite Harvard University humor magazine."
--New York Daily News, included in CaribBeat column
"C.J. Farley's Around Harvard Square is a witty and artful narrative
of a society on the crossroads of change...A must read."
--The Gleaner (Jamaica)
Included in the American Booksellers Association's ABC Best Books
for Young Adult Readers 2019!
Included in Publishers Weekly's Spring 2019 Children's
Announcements
Included in Rich in Color's Six Books to Kickstart April
"In his new novel, Around Harvard Square, Farley writes about a
scandal strikingly similar to how Singer helped parents and coaches
allegedly exploit athletic programs of schools like Yale, Georgetown,
and USC."
--Fox 5 (New York)
"This former Lampoon editor, journalist, and now satirical novelist,
has lots of insight into the discrepancies around race and gender that
remain present in the comedy industry."
--CityLine (WCVB-TV Boston)
"Around Harvard Square brings social commentary to college life,
approaching the issues in a humorous attitude...Farley makes the
injustices more tangible to a younger audience who may be future
students at such institutions, and he shows how little progression has
been made in the educational system regarding institutional racism."
--Prism Review
Tosh Livingston, superstar student-athlete from small-town USA, thinks
he's made it big as a rising freshman at Harvard University. Not so
fast! Once on campus, he's ensnared in a frenzied competition to win a
spot on Harvard's legendary humor magazine, the Harpoon. Tosh soon
finds that joining the Harpoon is a weird and surprisingly dangerous
pursuit. He faces off against a secret society of super-rich kids, gets
schooled by a philosophy professor who loves flunking everyone, and
teams up with a genius student-cartoonist with an agenda of her own.
Along the way, Tosh and his band of misfit freshman friends unearth
long-buried mysteries about the Ivy League that will rock the Ivory
Tower and change their lives forever...if they can survive the semester.
With its whip-smart humor and fast-paced narrative, Around Harvard
Square will appeal to readers of all ages interested in exploring the
complicated roles that race and class play in higher education.
