New Kid by Jerry Craft

 

Title: New Kid

Author: Jerry Craft

Illustrator: Jerry Craft

Genre: Graphic Novel

Major Awards: 2020 Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King, #1 New York Bestseller

Ages: 9-12 Years old

Summary:

This graphic novel is not one of those superhero books, but rather it is a story about a twelve year old, gifted African American kid name Jordan. Jordan dreams in going into Art school, but his parents puts Jordan into a private school instead called, Riverdale Academy Day with the use of Financial Aid. When, Jordan saw that there was few of his race in the private school, he felt discouraged in going there. Jordan was a very bright kid, therefore Jordan's parents did not want Jordan to miss out on the opportunity in putting Jordan into a private school. Jordan loved art so much that he owned a personal journal for himself, and carried it everywhere he went. His personal journal would always portray drawings of his emotions. Jordan was not too happy in going into a private school. Jordan's dad was more on Jordan's side, but still he encouraged Jordan to try the private school first and see if he would like it there. Jordan's private school was really huge. Jordan did not feel like he would fit in there because he viewed his race as one of the minority groups. Jordan tried to speak to the peers with his same race, in order to be able to fit in. Therefore, the first person, Jordan met in his new school was Maury. Jordan's neighbor and friend, Andy, introduced Maury to Jordan on the first day of school. However, Jordan and Maury did not really connect. They felt distant despite of being the same race. During lunch time, Jordan felt very small and isolated from everyone else. Jordan, then met Alex from homeroom and Ramon in the cafeteria. Alex and Ramon were not of Jordan's same race though. When, Jordan got home from school, Jordan's dad asked him how the diversity of his new school was, and Jordan replied that from the one hundred kids in his grade, there were only a few of them. Since, Jordan went to a private school the students there had to participate in an outside activity, so Jordan got into Soccer. Jordan met Liam there, and their team were called, "The Red Tads." Liam was Jordan's friend, who showed him around school too. Immediately, Jordan was able to connect with Liam, but with Drew it took him a while to connect. Jordan had a teacher named, Ms. Rawle who would always mispronounced Jordan's and Drew's name. Jordan would feel inferior to everyone in school because he felt that everyone would discriminate him for his ethnicity. Along the way, Jordan's dad was feeling depressed because he saw that Liam's dad was giving all the material support that Liam needed, while Jordan's dad was providing emotional support. Jordan tried going back to his old life, and his old friends would call him, "private school." Even, in that group, he felt excluded. Andy was always being the stereotypical kid in Riverdale Academy. Drew got mad at Andy, and he picked up a fight. Many of the peers defended Drew, including Jordan. They said, Andy fell on an apple, and even the Nicaraguan kid who was being picked on, said he saw it too. Ms. Rawle made Drew and Andy clean up. Then, the rest of the peers helped. The author tells us here, to stand up for what is right. Jordan threw up because of how anxious he felt for standing up. Jordan, even stood up for his discrimination beliefs against, his teacher, Ms. Rawle. Since then, Jordan began to change his mentality. He began to be more open minded, more confident, and more happy about himself. Jordan even began wearing the same clothe as his white friend, Andy. Jordan even changed Andy. Jordan realized that maybe Andy was feeling insecure about himself, and was not having a great life after all. In the end, Jordan's parent realized a new kid in Jordan, and reminded him that they love him. 

Book Evaluation:

1) I would definitely include this book in my classroom because it has become one of my favorite books to read. I believe this book speaks volume about how important it is to stand up for what is right. In this book, we see how speaking up for what is right transformed Jordan from being an insecure and closed minded kid into being an open minded and a new happy kid. Besides, I believe that this book would not only help students like Jordan, but it would help all students pick up a new mind set. Even, my brother enjoyed reading this book. I loved how this chapter book always illustrated pictures on every page of the book too. 

2) I would recommend this book for the students in Fourth grade to Seventh grade.

3) I would use this in the unit of Language Art. I would create an assignment, where they would have to write a couple of things they learned from the characters, and how their character mattered in the end of the story.