Author: Jerry Craft
Illustrator: Jerry Craft (Color by Jim Callahan)
Genre: Humor, Realistic Fiction, Graphic Novel
Major Awards: 2020 Newbery Medal*, Coretta Scott King Award, 2020 Kirkus Prize
Age Group: 3rd-7th
*First graphic novel to be awarded the Newbery Medal.
Summary:
Seventh grader Jordan banks loves drawing cartoons in his sketchbook and has a dream of going to art school. However, instead of going to art school, his parents enroll him in a rich, private school Riverdale Academy Day School (RAD) where people like Jordan are considered the minority. When Jordan first arrives at his new school, he has a hard time fitting in and feels overwhelmed with all that is going on. He get through his first couple weeks of school and notices that life is going to be different from here on out. Jordan feels like an outsider even though he gets along with friends that are not of the same color as him. At RAD, Jordan has to experience the many stereotypes that exist, that one rude student Andy, being called the wrong name by the unaware teacher, and being teased, judged, or stared at whenever they are talking about certain topics during class (i.e. financial aid). Soon after, Jordan becomes new friends with Drew, someone of the same color as him, and he encounters some new struggles. As we see Jordan trying to combine his two separate worlds into one, we get to dive into Jordan's daily life and see the different situations he has to deal with. At the end of the school year, Jordan has developed confidence (thanks to Drew and Andy's cafeteria argument) and was unaware that he made so many new friends at this new school he never thought he was going to like. He realizes this and finally accepts the two sides to himself and starts looking forward to the next school year while staying true to himself.
Evaluation & Comments:
I really enjoyed reading this graphic novel! I don't know why but when I first got this book, I was dreading having to read this because it was so thick. My mind just never jumped to other graphic novels that I would always read when I was a kid like The Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Captain Underpants. I loved New Kid because the message this graphic novel had was that even if you think or feel like you are alone, all you have to do is look around and take the first step with confidence. Let's take Jordan for example. He was a colored student from Washington Heights who had no choice but to adjust to the rich, private school of RAD full of white students. At first, he was dreading the new school life as a new kid. However, as he started building friendships and standing up for what was right in his mind, he realized that the school and people around him weren't as terrible as he thought. When students read this book, hopefully they don't give up hope and realize that they are not alone and get to experience what Jordan felt.
New Kid would probably work best from 3rd grade upward. Younger students can enjoy it too, but the directionality of the text may be confusing to understand. I would use this book for older students because the plot, message, and illustrations that were included is something that they can relate to and be interested in reading about. I would probably read this together in my class as kind of like a book club that I can hold for class discussions. This is especially because this book talks about topics like classroom culture, diversity, and friendship. I hope that when students in my class read this book, they will learn about different perspectives, imagining what it would be like to be in other people's positions and how they would feel. I would also like my students to learn about treating others how you would want to be treated no matter how their appearance is on the outside. They should treat each other with kindness and try to include each other in everything they do. Imagine if they were in the other person's shoes and that person was disrespectful to them, teased them, and didn't include them in anything they wanted to be engaged in. I definitely loved this graphic novel and would use this for the whole class because there are so many great lessons to be learned from this! 🙆
*First graphic novel to be awarded the Newbery Medal.
Summary:
Seventh grader Jordan banks loves drawing cartoons in his sketchbook and has a dream of going to art school. However, instead of going to art school, his parents enroll him in a rich, private school Riverdale Academy Day School (RAD) where people like Jordan are considered the minority. When Jordan first arrives at his new school, he has a hard time fitting in and feels overwhelmed with all that is going on. He get through his first couple weeks of school and notices that life is going to be different from here on out. Jordan feels like an outsider even though he gets along with friends that are not of the same color as him. At RAD, Jordan has to experience the many stereotypes that exist, that one rude student Andy, being called the wrong name by the unaware teacher, and being teased, judged, or stared at whenever they are talking about certain topics during class (i.e. financial aid). Soon after, Jordan becomes new friends with Drew, someone of the same color as him, and he encounters some new struggles. As we see Jordan trying to combine his two separate worlds into one, we get to dive into Jordan's daily life and see the different situations he has to deal with. At the end of the school year, Jordan has developed confidence (thanks to Drew and Andy's cafeteria argument) and was unaware that he made so many new friends at this new school he never thought he was going to like. He realizes this and finally accepts the two sides to himself and starts looking forward to the next school year while staying true to himself.
Evaluation & Comments:
I really enjoyed reading this graphic novel! I don't know why but when I first got this book, I was dreading having to read this because it was so thick. My mind just never jumped to other graphic novels that I would always read when I was a kid like The Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Captain Underpants. I loved New Kid because the message this graphic novel had was that even if you think or feel like you are alone, all you have to do is look around and take the first step with confidence. Let's take Jordan for example. He was a colored student from Washington Heights who had no choice but to adjust to the rich, private school of RAD full of white students. At first, he was dreading the new school life as a new kid. However, as he started building friendships and standing up for what was right in his mind, he realized that the school and people around him weren't as terrible as he thought. When students read this book, hopefully they don't give up hope and realize that they are not alone and get to experience what Jordan felt.
New Kid would probably work best from 3rd grade upward. Younger students can enjoy it too, but the directionality of the text may be confusing to understand. I would use this book for older students because the plot, message, and illustrations that were included is something that they can relate to and be interested in reading about. I would probably read this together in my class as kind of like a book club that I can hold for class discussions. This is especially because this book talks about topics like classroom culture, diversity, and friendship. I hope that when students in my class read this book, they will learn about different perspectives, imagining what it would be like to be in other people's positions and how they would feel. I would also like my students to learn about treating others how you would want to be treated no matter how their appearance is on the outside. They should treat each other with kindness and try to include each other in everything they do. Imagine if they were in the other person's shoes and that person was disrespectful to them, teased them, and didn't include them in anything they wanted to be engaged in. I definitely loved this graphic novel and would use this for the whole class because there are so many great lessons to be learned from this! 🙆
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