New Kid by Jerry Craft

Genre: Fiction graphic novel Age Group: 10-14 years old Summary: Unfortunately Jordan Banks, a budding artist, won't starting his new school at an art school but instead at the prestigious Riverdale Academy Day School. Can Jordan, the New Kid, handle the culture shock of his new school while maintaining his neighborhood friendships and being true to himself?

I remember hearing rumblings of this book on book social media such as book Instagram and book Twitter. When you find some of your favorite authors recommending the book you begin to take notice. The book has gone on to be awarded the 2020 Kirkus Prize, Coretta Scott King Award and the Newbery Medal. It was the first graphic novel in the award's 99 year history to be awarded the prize. With all of these accolades and mentions I felt that the book was well worth the read. Review:

I found myself astounded reading New Kid and how much I could relate to the middle school aged boy Jordan Banks. While the story was woven through the perspective of a middle school aged boy, Craft manages to touch on points of Jordan’s experience that many can relate to, specifically those who are people of color.

I found the themes that Craft explored in Jordan’s story of identity and microaggressions to be spot on. I find the theme of identity will always play a constant in middle grade and young adult literature. In New Kid we find Jordan trying to balance his neighborhood identity with the identity he’s trying to form at his prestigious private academy. It is a juggling act as Jordan is trying to balance both world and keep them separate. Craft is also able to weave all these microaggressions into the story such as one of the teachers calling Jordan’s Black classmate Drew the wrong name and his classmate Andy stating that Jordan will like his pre-algebra teacher simply because they are both Black. It was great to not only see these examples woven into the story but to also see the effects of microaggressions presented. While micro is within the word microaggression, when these continue to occur over a period of time they can lead to frustration and anger which we see happen when Jordan’s classmate Drew has a fiery exchange of words with their homeroom teacher.

I enjoyed that while New Kid interwove tough topics into its storyline it managed to keep an air of humor such as when Jordan talks about how his father taught him to give a ridiculously firm handshake or his mother breaking out the old school camera, which she doesn’t take good pictures with, for his first day of school. One will even find themselves a chuckle when looking at the beginning of the chapters and noticing the references to pop culture Craft has made with chapter titles and imagery.

With this being a graphic novel, the illustrations were part of the story and allowed us to view the true expressions of the characters during dialogue and even while they were off side such as when Andy was upset when Drew was being congratulated on the football game he played in. I like that Craft included Jordan’s artwork as well and gave it a stark contrast to the story by placing it in black and white. Jordan’s artwork gave us even more of a glimpse into his perspective and provided humorful asides to the story while also giving background to certain interactions and the story unfolding within the chapter.

Craft, J. (2019). New Kid. Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.