book report on new kid

76 pages • 2 hours read

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Summary and Study Guide

New Kid by Jerry Craft is a 2019 graphic novel and winner of the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award. Jim Callahan is responsible for the coloring. Craft is the creator of the 1990 comic strip Mama’s Boyz and Class Act , the 2020 companion story to this book. New Day focuses on an artistic middle school student who makes friends and builds confidence in himself as he navigates race and class issues at a prestigious private school.

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Jordan Banks is a middle school student who loves drawing cartoons about his experiences. But he feels he has no control over his life as his parents send him to the prestigious Riverdale Academy Day School (RAD). Its sprawling campus and affluent student body are a world apart from his Washington Heights neighborhood in New York City. The campus impresses him, but he gets lost easily and must deal with a bully, Andy, who mocks his height and makes stereotypical comments about race. Jordan’s father, Chuck, sympathizes with his desire to go to art school and his position as a Black student in a majority white school, while his mother, Ellice, insists he must learn what’s necessary to succeed in a career.

As the year progresses, Jordan takes classes, plays sports, and draws sketches. However, he changes his appearance and habits on his bus ride to school depending on the neighborhood, always wears a hooded jacket, and he deals with passive forms of racism, such as having people call him by the names of other Black students or look at him when topics like slavery and financial aid come up. In Washington Heights, he faces the opposite problem as his education pushes him away from his old friends.

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Jordan becomes friends with Liam, his guide to the school. Liam comes from a wealthy family, but he would rather play video games with ordinary people like Jordan and criticizes his absent father. Jordan also meets Drew, who also comes from a disadvantaged background. Even though Drew is a smart student and good athlete, he acts out in retaliation to Andy’s bullying and the persecution of their homeroom teacher, Ms. Rawle. Jordan is reluctant to introduce his two vastly different friends to each other but eventually brings them together with his grandfather’s encouragement.

Over the winter, Drew nearly confronts Andy after receiving stereotypical gifts from a Secret Santa, only to learn that they are from Ashley, a gossip who has a crush on him. As Ashley’s Secret Santa, Jordan must explain to her what a sweet potato pie is. He also talks with Alexandra, a girl who uses a hand puppet and hyperactive persona to distract from a burn scar she received after saving her brother from a pot of boiling water. His neighborhood friend, Kirk, helps Jordan reconnect with the other kids in Washington Heights.

Andy becomes more abusive after RAD expels Collin, his friend on financial aid, for going on a Hawaii vacation with him. When Drew confronts Andy in the cafeteria, Andy pushes him. Drew pushes back, causing Andy to slip and crash into a table. When Andy and Ms. Rawle try to pin the blame on Drew, Jordan summons the courage to tell the truth about the fight. This wins the support of students and faculty alike, saving Drew from suspension.

Ms. Rawle discovers Jordan’s misplaced sketchbook and reads through it. She calls Jordan an angry person who should be happy to attend RAD, but Jordan refutes the claim—he is only expressing his opinion through his sketches. He also points out how Ms. Rawle would never teach in his neighborhood if she had the choice. Afterward, Jordan paints an abstract work with the encouragement of Ms. Slate, a high-concept art teacher who he initially dismisses, and she uses it as the school’s yearbook cover.

At the end of the novel, Jordan helps Alexandra overcome her insecurities by sharing the story of her scar with Ashley, who tells it to everyone else. Once the students see that Alexandra’s scar isn’t as bad as she thought, she is able to feel more confident and gives one of her hand puppets to Jordan. On the last day of school, Jordan arrives without his jacket on for the first time. He even signs Andy’s yearbook after everyone else refuses to, and his parents remark that he is more confident than before—a “ New Kid ” (245).

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About the Book

Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang, NEW KID is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real, from award-winning author-illustrator Jerry Craft.

As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds --- and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?

New Kid written and illustrated by Jerry Craft

Publication Date: February 5, 2019
Genres: Fiction , Graphic Novel
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0062691198
ISBN-13: 9780062691194

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Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

Kirkus Reviews' Best Books Of 2019

Kirkus Prize winner

IndieBound Bestseller

From the New Kid series , Vol. 1

by Jerry Craft ; illustrated by Jerry Craft with color by Jim Callahan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 5, 2019

An engrossing, humorous, and vitally important graphic novel that should be required reading in every middle school in...

Jordan Banks takes readers down the rabbit hole and into his mostly white prep school in this heartbreakingly accurate middle-grade tale of race, class, microaggressions, and the quest for self-identity.

He may be the new kid, but as an African-American boy from Washington Heights, that stigma entails so much more than getting lost on the way to homeroom. Riverdale Academy Day School, located at the opposite end of Manhattan, is a world away, and Jordan finds himself a stranger in a foreign land, where pink clothing is called salmon, white administrators mistake a veteran African-American teacher for the football coach, and white classmates ape African-American Vernacular English to make themselves sound cool. Jordan’s a gifted artist, and his drawings blend with the narrative to give readers a full sense of his two worlds and his methods of coping with existing in between. Craft skillfully employs the graphic-novel format to its full advantage, giving his readers a delightful and authentic cast of characters who, along with New York itself, pop off the page with vibrancy and nuance. Shrinking Jordan to ant-sized proportions upon his entering the school cafeteria, for instance, transforms the lunchroom into a grotesque Wonderland in which his lack of social standing becomes visually arresting and viscerally uncomfortable.

Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-06-269120-0

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS

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by Jerry Craft ; illustrated by Jerry Craft

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The Kirkus Prize: Spotlight on Finalists in Young Readers Literature (Picture Books and Middle Grade Books)

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THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

From the school for good and evil series , vol. 1.

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.

Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.

Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).

Pub Date: May 14, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2

Page Count: 496

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

NOWHERE BOY

by Katherine Marsh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 7, 2018

A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...

Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.

Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.

Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018

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New Kid : Book summary and reviews of New Kid by Jerry Craft

Summary | Reviews | More Information | More Books

by Jerry Craft

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Published Feb 2019 256 pages Genre: Graphic Novels Publication Information

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About this book

Book summary.

New Kid is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real

Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds—and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?

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Book Awards

Media reviews, reader reviews.

"This engaging story offers an authentic secondary cast and captures the high jinks of middle schoolers and the tensions that come with being a person of color in a traditionally white space." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Possibly one of the most important graphic novels of the year." - Booklist (starred review) "An engrossing, humorous, and vitally important graphic novel that should be required reading in every middle school in America." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "This is more than a story about being the new kid—it's a complex examination of the micro- and macroaggressions that Jordan endures from classmates and teachers. Highly recommended for all middle grade shelves." - School Library Journal (starred review) "Craft's full-color comics art is dynamic and expressive. This school story stands out as a robust, contemporary depiction of a preteen navigating sometimes hostile spaces yet staying true to himself thanks to friends, family, and art." - Horn Book Magazine "Genuine characters propel this funny, warm, biting, fearless story. Entertaining and insightful, it will surely offer affirmation for some readers, revelation for others." - Cooperative Children's Book Center "New Kid is at once tender and tough, funny and heartbreaking. Hand this to the middle-grade reader in your life right away." - The New York Times Book Review "An honest and compelling read for any kid looking for a place to belong." - Scholastic Teacher Magazine "Funny, sharp, and totally real! Jordan Banks is the kid everyone will be talking about!" - Jeff Kinney, Author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Author Information

Jerry craft.

Jerry Craft is an author and illustrator who has worked on numerous picture books, graphic novels, and middle grade novels, including The Zero Degree Zombie Zone by Patrik Henry Bass. Jerry is the creator of Mama's Boyz , an award-winning syndicated comic strip. He has won five African American Literary Awards, and he is a co founder of the Schomburg Center's Annual Black Comic Book Festival. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts and now lives in Connecticut. Visit him online at www.jerrycraft.com.

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Book Review: New Kid

Image courtesy of JerryCraft.com - full reference included in Citations section.

Genre / Category:

Fiction > Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Age Rating:

Middle Grades (3rd – 7th grade)

Twelve-year-old Jordan Banks finds himself in a new and very different world when he enrolls in the Riverdale Academy Day School, the best private school in the state. While adjusting to his new environment, Jordan meets new friends, navigates the social pitfalls of middle school, and grapples with integrating the elements of his “old” and “new” lives.

Justification:

I chose New Kid as my Coretta Scott King award-winning selection, although that is far from the only prize awarded to this novel. New Kid was also named the 2020 Kirkus Prize Winner and received the 2020 Newbery Medal – becoming the first graphic novel to do so.

Evaluation:

When I originally chose the books I planned to read in this course, I thought Eleanor & Park would be my only banned / challenged book selection. On October 6, 2021, I was surprised to read that New Kid had been challenged by a parent in Katy ISD for, according to the parent, teaching “critical race theory” (Li, 2021, para 1). Although the book was reviewed and reinstated by the district a week later, the experience is strangely apropos for the subject of the book itself. Through his use of dynamic art, a familiar plot, and uniquely believable characters, author Jerry Craft tells a story that is as beautiful and authentic as it is distressing to the conservative reaches of the Houston suburbs.

Although I am an admitted lover of words, I do not think that New Kid would have been as emotionally impactful as a text-only novel. The story panels burst with expressive, active imagery – the characters are full of movement and emotion that highlights and heightens the accompanying text. When one particular event early in the protagonist’s, Jordan’s, experience at Riverdale Academy Day School (RAD) makes him feel vulnerable and small, Craft shows him as a mouse, tiny and exposed in a world of giant feet. The text identifies the social misstep and Jordan’s response to it, while the image immediately gives the reader that flash of hot shame that results from such situations in real life. A variety of Jordan’s sketches are interspersed with the story panels, adding levity at strategic moments throughout the tale, while also deepening the audience’s understanding of his personality. The artistic style is clean and simple, and uses distinct styles and color for the storytelling panels versus Jordan’s sketches, thus giving each their own individual voice. In these ways, each graphic, panel, color, and artistic choice tells the story in progress in an amplified and enriching way.

The plot of New Kid is a classic school year, coming-of-age story where the protagonist, Jordan, learns to orient himself in a decidedly off-putting environment – the nearly all-white private school that his mother chose for him to attend in lieu of art school. Jordan faces the familiar pitfalls of being the titular new kid in this environment – learning where in the cafeteria is off-limits to him as a first-year student, managing to find his way to class on a gigantic campus, and meeting his teachers and classmates. The familiarity of this plotline does not take away its narrative impact. In fact, because the situation is so familiar and relatable, Craft is able to use it to highlight the ways in which Jordan’s experience is distinct from other protagonists of the classic school story, and this conflict adds to the narrative tension. As one of only a few non-White students at Riverdale Academy Day School (RAD), Jordan experiences, and in turn allows the reader to experience, all the milestones of a school year with an additional lens: Craft overlays microaggressions, codeswitching, and navigating cross-racial and socioeconomic friendships on to the classic middle school experience.

The characters in New Kid are, for me, the instruments of what makes the plot really work. Rich and varied, each contains nuanced shades of depth that I was not expecting in a middle grades graphic novel. The protagonist, Jordan, is a creative artist who, though he never says the word, illustrates the concept of codeswitching in the clearest way that I have ever seen it presented as he transforms himself – hoodie and sunglasses on, to just hoodie, to no hoodie, to no hoodie and no drawing or pencils out - over a series of subway stops as he moves from his home in Washington Heights to the decidedly posh enclave that is the home of the RAD campus. Friends Maury, Drew, Liam, Alexandra, and class bully Andy are also multi-dimensional and original, and who, while they play the roles of archetypal characters in a school-coming-of-age story, do not fall into the classic backstory of those archetypes. Jordan is a smart kid from an average middle-class family with two working parents. Liam is a rich kid who misses his dad and prefers playing Xbox with his friends to going on lavish vacations. Drew receives financial assistance and lives with his grandmother, and is the best student in the school in math. Even school bully Andy does not have the usual abuse and broken family dynamic of the classic school bully – although his living the consequences of his microaggressions and general buffoonery render him almost likeable by the book’s end, though credit for that is due to Craft’s excellent characterization of Jordan, who is a genuinely kind kid and the only RAD student who signs Andy’s yearbook. All these examples are to say that although classic themes of race and class are present, and the kids certainly exist in those contexts, they do not provide the central conflict within each relationship – this is not a simple rich versus poor or black versus white story, it’s a much more complicated and realistic one. This story is ultimately about a group of kids learning to work and play together within the system in which they find themselves.

And the system in which they find themselves is Craft’s masterwork. He does a phenomenal job of capturing all the disparate elements of Middle School, from the weird teacher who ends up inspiring Jordan by the tale’s end, the principal who cannot seem to remember that the math teacher is an altogether different man than the school’s former coach, and, most importantly, the insidious ways in which adults in authority can become the tools of institutional racism. This is nowhere more embodied than in Jordan’s homeroom teacher, who consistently calls Drew “Deandre,” clarifying that Deandre was a trouble student, regularly reminds her students of color that financial assistance is available when costs beyond admission are discussed (even if they do not need or qualify for it), and, after finding and looking through Jordan’s sketchbook without asking, tells Jordan that he seems like an angry boy, when he should be grateful for the opportunity represented by attending the RAD School. I can only speculate that it was this portrayal of what is reality for so many students across America that caused the Katy ISD parent to submit her challenge of New Kid to the school board, in some misguided view that Craft was artificially casting the novel’s white teachers as implements of oppression, rather than attempting to accurately capture the lived experiences of students of color, including himself and his children. I do not have the same problem of doubting someone’s recollection of their own experience, but I can add my own as a defense of Craft’s work. As someone who has spent the last 10 years working in public school human resources, I can say that events like those included in Craft’s portrayal match many of the investigations and disciplinary meetings that I have been involved in during the past decade. Happily, it seems the reviewers of the Katy ISD school board agree.

I think that New Kid is a deserving recipient of all the honors it has won, as it is that rare and special combination of good as a story and good as a life lesson . Through his expressive art, timeless plot, and full-bodied characters, author Jerry Craft deftly weaves a coming-of-age story with heart – and the best and most fully-developed characters that I have met thus far in my reading. I recommend it highly to all middle-grade and up readers – and I hope the publicity from the backlash it has received inspires everyone to read it for themselves!

Craft, J. (2019). New kid . Harper Collins.

Craft, J. (2019). New kid by Jerry Craft . Jerry Craft. https://jerrycraft.com/books/new-kid/

Li, D. K. (2021). Texas school district pulls books by acclaimed black author amid critical race theory claims. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-school-district-pulls-books-acclaimed-children-s-author-n1280956

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About the Book

Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang, New Kid is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real, from award-winning author-illustrator Jerry Craft.

As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds—and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?

Universal Pictures has acquired film rights to New Kid , with LeBron James’ The Spring Hill Company on board to develop and produce. Craft will be an Executive Producer.

Awards & Recognition

Winner of the 2020 Newbery Medal Winner of the 2020 Coretta Scott King Book Awards Author Award #1 New York Times Bestseller Winner of the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature Finalist for Audie Award – Middle Grade Book of the Year San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller Indie Bestseller for Early & Middle Grade Readers One of Publishers Weekly ’s Best Middle Grade Books of 2019 New England Independent Booksellers Association Best Children’s Book of 2019 New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association 2019 Book of the Year for Middle Readers Top 10 Spring 2019 Indie Next List Pick Amazon Best Book of the Month, Ages 9-12 2019 Harvey Award for Best Children’s Book Nominee One of Booklist ’s 2019 Top 10 Diverse Fiction for Youth One of P ublishers Weekly ’s Most Anticipated Children’s Books, Spring 2019 #1 Indie Comics & Graphic Works Bestseller One of the Best Graphic Novels of 2019 – School Library Journal One of the 5 Best Fiction Books of 2019 – Washington Post One of the Best Graphic Novels of 2019 – Washington Post 2020 Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children – Honor Book One of the Best Books of the Year – Time.com Best Books of 2019 – New York Public Library Best Fiction for Older Readers of 2019 – Chicago Public Library 25 Best Children’s Books of 2019 – New York Times Best Multicultural Children’s Books of 2019 – Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature The Best New Gift Books for Kids – People

“Funny, sharp, and totally real! Jordan Banks is the kid everyone will be talking about!” —Jeff Kinney, Author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid

“ New Kid is at once tender and tough, funny and heartbreaking. Hand this to the middle-grade reader in your life right away.” — The New York Times Book Review

“Possibly one of the most important graphic novels of the year.” —Booklist (starred review)

“An engrossing, humorous, and vitally important graphic novel that should be required reading in every middle school in America.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“This is more than a story about being the new kid—it’s a complex examination of the micro- and macroaggressions that Jordan endures from classmates and teachers. Highly recommended for all middle grade shelves.” —School Library Journal (starred review)

“Award-winning author/illustrator Jerry Craft confronts elitism, microaggression, racism, socioeconomic disparity and white privilege in a familiar setting… Presented in predominantly full-color, richly saturated panels, Craft distinguishes Jordan’s sketchbook entries in black-and-white pencil drawings, their stark simplicity underscoring their uncomplicated wisdom…. Preteen audiences will undoubtedly recognize and empathize with Craft’s memorable cast.” — Shelf Awareness , Starred Review

“This engaging story offers an authentic secondary cast and captures the high jinks of middle schoolers and the tensions that come with being a person of color in a traditionally white space.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Genuine characters propel this funny, warm, biting, fearless story. Entertaining and insightful, it will surely offer affirmation for some readers, revelation for others.” —Cooperative Children’s Book Center

“Craft’s full-color comics art is dynamic and expressive, generously adorned by emojis, arrows, and imaginative elements such as the small winged cherubs who frequently hover over Jordan’s shoulders; each chapter is introduced by a witty, foreshadowing double-page spread. This school story stands out as a robust, contemporary depiction of a preteen navigating sometimes hostile spaces yet staying true to himself thanks to friends, family, and art.” — The Horn Book Magazine

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New kid quotes and analysis.

“They offer five languages, AP classes, the Harkness method, lacrosse, crew…” “What’s crew?” “What’s the Harkness method?” “I have no idea, but they sound wonderful.” Ellice, Jordan and Chuck, p. 3

In the graphic novel's opening scene, Jordan's mother, Ellice, swoons over the Riverdale Academy Day School website. Meanwhile, Jordan winces and his father furrows his brow, neither of them understanding the significance of the school's features. In this humorous exchange of dialogue, Ellice admits she also doesn't know what "crew" (team rowing) or "the Harkness method" (an educational model where students discuss topics while sitting at the same table) are. Ultimately, the exact meaning of the words isn't important to Ellice because they amount to elite shibboleths Jordan will soon learn about.

“Are you gonna try out for the team?” “No. I’d rather play Alexander Hamilton in T he George Washington Musical … Or at least play cello in the orchestra. But I do kinda like squash. Do you?” “Nah, I’m more of a broccoli guy.” Jordan and Maury, p. 64

One day after school, Jordan attempts to befriend Maury, one of the few Black students at RAD. However, the two quickly learn that they have little in common, as Maury doesn't play video games and Jordan doesn't even realize that squash is a sport often played by the wealthy. The exchange is significant because it shows that Jordan and Maury both being Black does not necessarily mean they have an easy time relating to each other. Instead, Maury's family's extreme wealth has resulted in him having elite tastes that are alienating to Jordan.

“How are you fitting in?” “Okay, except they keep calling me and Drew by the wrong names.” “I wouldn’t read anything into it. I’m sure it’s only because you’re new.” Mr. Garner and Jordan, p. 61

Microaggression is a term used to describe language and behavior which—whether intentional or not—can be perceived as racist in nature by the person impacted. A common form of microaggression in schoolrooms is when teachers—especially among those who haven't been exposed to much cultural diversity—routinely call a student belonging to a minority group by the name of another student within that group. In this exchange, Jordan expresses his frustration to Mr. Garner, one of the few Black members of the faculty. While Garner tries to convince Jordan not to read into it, in the very next panel, an older white man walks past Garner and mistakes him for the school's Black coach, proving Jordan's point.

"In order to be successful in corporate America, you have to know how to play the game.” “But not everyone can play that game, Ellice. Nor should they have to! That’s why I left that life.” Ellice and Chuck, p. 96

After attending parent-teacher night, Jordan's parents come home and discuss what his teachers said about his engagement and performance. The conversation devolves into an argument that shows the divide between Chuck and Ellice. While Ellice wants Jordan to adjust to life at RAD because it will teach him "the rules" needed to succeed in a corporate landscape dominated by the white and wealthy, Chuck is more sympathetic, believing Jordan ought to pursue art if it's what he wants. This exchange is significant because it shows how Jordan's schooling becomes a proxy for a more complex conflict between each of his parents' attitudes toward ambition and assimilation.

“What are you talking about? I’m not angry, I even kinda like it here.” “I beg to differ. This book is a polemic against everything this school stands for. And me.” Jordan and Ms. Rawle, p. 219

When Ms. Rawle finds Jordan's sketchbook, she reads through it with no regard for his privacy. She then confronts him about the "anger" she detects in his satirical comics about life at RAD. In this exchange, Jordan bristles at being misinterpreted as an angry young Black male when his comics are simply an expression of an opinion, like one would see in an editorial cartoon. Rawle doubles down on her accusation, however, treating Jordan's private drawings as an affront to the school and her authority. The exchange is significant because it shows how Rawle treats Jordan with the same condescension and mistrust that she does Drew. Neither student can ignore how she comments on their behavior far more judgementally and uncharitably than she does when dealing with white students such as Andy.

“Oh, I see… It’s okay that this stuff happens to us… It’s just not okay for us to complain about it. … Would you teach at a school in my neighborhood? You know, so you could be special?” Jordan, p.221

In this passage, Jordan stands up for himself against Rawle's assessment that he is too angry and ought to accept that he only stands out at RAD because he is "special." Jordan points out the coded messages in Rawle's statements, which imply that he should put up with microaggressions without complaint, simply accepting the school for what it is so that it may accept him back. To end the conversation, Jordan challenges her to see things from his perspective, pointing out that she wouldn't feel very comfortable coming to teach in his neighborhood, a middle- and working-class ethnically diverse area.

"What are you anyway?" Andy, p. 20

Upon meeting Andy, Jordan realizes quickly that he is an attention-seeker. He also gets his first taste of Andy's tendency to ask questions and make comments that needlessly bring up the racial background of students of color. In this passage, Andy casually slips in a question about "what" Jordan is, suggesting that Jordan's light-brown skin tone is confusing to him. Andy's desire to racially categorize Jordan also speaks to the way he sees the world.

"Jordan, this is amazing!" "It is?" "Sure, the way that some colors blend. While others clash. It's like, beneath this calm exterior lies this storm. It's so you, Jordan!" Ms. Slate and Jordan, p. 223

In art class, Jordan reluctantly accepts Ms. Slate's challenge to paint something that isn't figurative. While making his composition, Jordan thinks about the frustrations he has dealt with as a student at RAD. The resulting painting is an expressionistic encapsulation of his emotional state. In this exchange, Slate praises the painting, seeing it as a "so" Jordan because it matches his mix of a calm demeanor and conflicted, sometimes bitter emotional state.

"Whatever it is, you look like a new kid." "You know, I feel kinda like a new kid." Chuck and Jordan, p. 247

On his last day of his first year at RAD, Jordan is excited to start the summer having made genuine connections with several important people. When his parents pick him up, they comment on the positive change in his demeanor. In this exchange, the book's title gains new meaning: No longer the new kid starting at an unfamiliar school, he is a "new kid" in the sense of being reborn as a more confident and content person than when he started at RAD.

“My grandpa always says that friends are like training wheels for a bike. They always keep you from falling down. That’s a metaphor. I learned about them in English.” "Actually, Jordan, that's a simile." “C’mon, ‘Private School,’ everybody knows that!” Jordan, Kenny and Kirk, p. 249

On the last page of New Kid , Jordan reconnects with his neighborhood friends and goes off to play basketball. In this exchange, Jordan expresses his appreciation for his oldest friends, likening them to bicycle training wheels because they perform a similarly supportive function. However, he mistakenly identifies it as a metaphor. He points it out like a know-it-all, prompting his friends to point out that, as a private schooler, he should know it's a simile. The passage is significant because it shows that despite having good enough grades to attend an elite private school on financial aid, Jordan has friends who stay in the neighborhood's public school system and are not necessarily any less intelligent than he is.

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New Kid Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for New Kid is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What is your question here?

why doesn't jordan like ms. Slates art class

Jordan enrolls in his first (and seemingly lame) art class taught by Ms. Slate, an avante-garde artist extraordinaire. He doesn't like the abstract figurative style of art that she introduces.

One complaint that both boys have is the fact that other students confuse them with other black students in the school. The white students do not look past the color of their skin and see them as individuals.

Study Guide for New Kid

New Kid study guide contains a biography of Jerry Craft, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About New Kid
New Kid Summary
Character List

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New Kid: A Newbery Award Winner Kindle & comiXology

Winner of the Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature!

This middle grade graphic novel is an excellent choice for tween readers, including for summer reading.

New Kid is a selection of the Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List.

Plus don't miss Jerry Craft's Class Act !

Print length 256 pages
Language English
Grade level 3 - 7
Lexile measure GN320L
Publisher Quill Tree Books
Publication date February 5, 2019
Page Flip Not Enabled
Word Wise Not Enabled
Enhanced typesetting Not Enabled
Sticky notes Not Enabled
ISBN-13 978-0062691194
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Editorial Reviews

From school library journal.

More than a story about being the new kid-it's a complex examination of the micro- and macroaggressions that Jordan endures from classmates and teachers...Highly recommended.

Speaking up about the unrepresented experience of so many students makes this a necessary book, particularly for this age group.

[A] heartbreakingly accurate middle-grade tale of race, class, microaggressions, and the quest for self-identity...Engrossing, humorous, and vitally important.

This engaging story offers an authentic secondary cast and captures the high jinks of middle schoolers and the tensions that come with being a person of color in a traditionally white space.

About the Author

Jerry Craft is an author and illustrator who has worked on numerous picture books, graphic novels, and middle grade novels, including The Zero Degree Zombie Zone by Patrik Henry Bass. He is the creator of Mama's Boyz , an award-winning syndicated comic strip. He has won five African American Literary Awards, and he is a cofounder of the Schomburg Center's Annual Black Comic Book Festival. He received his BFA degree from the School of Visual Arts. Visit him online at www.jerrycraft.net.

Marc Thompson , a voice actor and Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator, earned his BFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, in 1997. He narrates many titles in the New York Times bestselling Star Wars series, and his voice can be heard in commercials, on radio, and on many cartoons, including MTV's Daria , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Yu-Gi-Oh! , and G.I. Joe: Sigma 6 .

Robin Miles , named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, has twice won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, an Audie Award for directing, and many Earphones Awards. Her film and television acting credits include The Last Days of Disco, Primary Colors, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order, New York Undercover , National Geographic's Tales from the Wild, All My Children, and One Life to Live . She regularly gives seminars to members of SAG and AFTRA actors' unions, and in 2005 she started Narration Arts Workshop in New York City, offering audiobook recording classes and coaching. She holds a BA degree in theater studies from Yale University, an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama, and a certificate from the British American Drama Academy in England.

Rebecca Soler is a film and voice-over actress and winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards for audiobook narration. Her voice-over credits include various video games, like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Red Dead Redemption , and television shows such as Pokemon , Yu-Gi-Oh , and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles .

Dan Bittner is an actor and voice talent and winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards for audio narration. He has starred on stage and on the screen, in movies such as Men in Black , Adventureland , and the Producers: The Movie Musical . He has also appeared onstage as Macbeth and Sherlock Holmes in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B078R4MWFX
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Quill Tree Books; 1st edition (February 5, 2019)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 5, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 454640 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
#1 in Children's Boys & Men Books
#20 in Children's Books on Boys' & Men's Issues
#30 in Children's Issues in School Books

About the author

Jerry craft.

JERRY CRAFT is an author and illustrator. New Kid is his middle grade graphic novel that has earned five starred reviews, including one from Booklist magazine, which called it “possibly one of the most important graphic novels of the year.” Kirkus Reviews called it “an engrossing, humorous, and vitally important graphic novel that should be required reading in every middle school in America.”He is the creator of Mama’s Boyz, a comic strip that was distributed by King Features Syndicate from 1995-2013, and won five African American Literary Awards. Jerry is a co-founder of the Schomburg’s Annual Black Comic Book Festival. He was born in Harlem and grew up in nearby Washington Heights. He is a graduate of The Fieldston School and received his B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts.

Get more info at www.jerrycraft.com

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Gripping sports story about a boy's struggle for identity.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Readers will learn the fine points of big-league p

As in baseball, so in life, you struggle to be you

The high school coach, while battling personal dem

The coach, after the death of his son, becomes an

Parents need to know that New Kid , by bestselling author Tim Green, shows a high school baseball player fighting for his identity against a formidable adversary: his shadowy, ultra-strict father, who has reason to fear for his boy's safety. It's an engrossing story with no troublesome content, save…

Educational Value

Readers will learn the fine points of big-league pitching from author Tim Green, a former pro football player and now an amateur baseball coach.

Positive Messages

As in baseball, so in life, you struggle to be yourself while remaining part of the team. Sometimes you have to stand up to your parent to pursue your dreams.

Positive Role Models

The high school coach, while battling personal demons, shows patience and understanding toward Brock, who struggles to control his pitches. The coach even steps aside at a critical moment to let someone else help his protege.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

The coach, after the death of his son, becomes an alcoholic.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that New Kid , by bestselling author Tim Green , shows a high school baseball player fighting for his identity against a formidable adversary: his shadowy, ultra-strict father, who has reason to fear for his boy's safety. It's an engrossing story with no troublesome content, save for a coach who becomes an alcoholic after the death of his son.

Where to Read

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There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

What's the Story?

A father is mysteriously on the run, dragging along his teen son, who has to change his name with every move. Young Brock (formerly Tommy), knows his dad loves him but struggles to find his true self, this time in a high school in upstate New York. There the baseball coach spots his talent as a pitcher. Brock's dad agrees to let him play for the town's traveling team but shows up to snatch him away at the worst possible moment.

Is It Any Good?

Bestselling author Tim Green, who writes frequently about sports, spins an engrossing tale for young baseball players, male and female, with a climax that ends on the last pitch. The writing in NEW KID is mostly sharp but sometimes dips into sentiments worthy of a needlepoint pillow.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about playing sports. Does it sometimes amplify the tension between fitting in and standing out?

Do you like reading novels about sports? What are some of your favorites?

Brock, who's constantly uprooted, makes friends with characters in books. Have you ever felt close to a book character? Which one or ones?

Book Details

Author : Tim Green
Genre : Contemporary Fiction
Topics : Sports and Martial Arts , High School
Book type : Fiction
Publisher : Harper
Publication date : March 4, 2014
Publisher's recommended age(s) : 10 - 14
Number of pages : 320
Available on : Nook, Hardback, Kindle
Last updated : October 9, 2019

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New Kid Book Summary

By jerry craft.

New Kid is a graphic novel that tells the story of Jordan Banks, a seventh-grader who loves drawing cartoons and dreams of attending art school. However, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few students of color. The book explores themes of identity, microaggressions, code-switching, and the challenges of navigating predominantly white spaces as a person of color.

Author & writing background, microaggressions and bias, code-switching, friendship and belonging, identity and self-expression, family dynamics, humor and relatability, art as a form of expression, importance of representation, what age group is this book appropriate for, has the book won any awards, is there a sequel to new kid, new kid quotes.

Jerry Craft is an award-winning author and illustrator known for his graphic novels that explore the experiences of young Black characters. He draws inspiration from his own childhood and aims to create relatable stories that resonate with readers of all backgrounds. His engaging writing style and vibrant illustrations have earned him critical acclaim and a dedicated following.

Key Takeaways

The book subtly portrays the everyday microaggressions and unconscious biases that Jordan faces, highlighting the challenges of being a minority in a predominantly white environment.

Jordan’s experiences demonstrate the concept of code-switching, where he adjusts his behavior and language to fit in with different social groups, highlighting the complexities of navigating multiple cultural identities.

Despite the challenges, Jordan forms meaningful friendships with students from diverse backgrounds, emphasizing the importance of finding one’s community and sense of belonging.

The book explores themes of identity as Jordan grapples with staying true to himself while navigating the expectations and pressures of his new environment.

Jordan’s relationship with his parents and their differing perspectives on his education add another layer to the story, highlighting the complexities of family dynamics and cultural expectations.

Despite dealing with serious themes, the book incorporates humor and relatable situations that resonate with young readers, making it an engaging and accessible read.

Jordan’s passion for drawing cartoons serves as a powerful form of self-expression and a way for him to process his experiences and emotions.

New Kid highlights the importance of representation in literature and media, offering young readers of color a relatable and empowering story that reflects their own experiences.

FAQ about New Kid

New Kid is recommended for readers aged 8-12, but its themes and messages can resonate with audiences of all ages.

Yes, New Kid has won numerous awards, including the Newbery Medal, the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature.

Yes, there is a sequel titled “Class Act” that continues Jordan’s story in seventh grade.

”Sometimes a person has to leave home to find out where they truly belong."
"Just because someone’s different doesn’t mean they’re not normal."
"It’s okay to be proud of who you are and where you come from.”

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My Storyboards

New Kid by Jerry Craft

An African American boy holds a sketchbook. He looks sad and left out. Behind him are several white classmates, and a fancy looking prep school.

Twelve-year-old Jordan loves to draw, and he’s really, really good at it. He wants to go to art school, but his parents send him to an upscale school away from his Washington Heights neighborhood. As one of the few African American kids at his school, Jordan must learn to navigate making new friends, ignorance, class issues, and finding his place in a seemingly foreign land. This award winning graphic novel is told absolutely brilliantly, and Craft’s artistic talents jump right off the pages. Students will not want to put it down, and teachers will love the lessons that the story teaches. New Kid is a treasure that is not to be missed!

Student Activities for New Kid

Essential Questions for New Kid

What are some of the main challenges that Jordan faces each day at school?
How do the teachers and other students treat Jordan different because of his skin color?
How does Jordan change throughout the book?
Why did the author choose to write this as a graphic novel?

New Kid Summary

Jordan Banks is a 12 year old African American boy who loves to draw. He lives with his parents in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City and dreams of attending art school. He keeps a scrapbook of all of his comics and drawings, and feels right at home where he lives. When his parents approach him about going to Riverdale Academy Day School, an affluent school uptown, Jordan is hesitant. What if there is no one like him there? What if he doesn’t fit in?

As a new kid, Jordan is paired with Liam, a fellow student who shows him the ropes. Liam is white, rich, and has a driver who often brings him to school. On the first day, Liam and his father pick Jordan up at his home; it is clear that Jordan is uncomfortable with these two different worlds colliding. His first day doesn’t go so well; Jordan gets lost and deals with being called the wrong name, the shame of being on financial aid, and feeling alone. One boy in particular, Andy, is ignorant and rude, and his racist comments are hard to ignore. However, Jordan realizes that Liam is a good guy, and he is happy that they met.

Over time, Jordan learns to not only navigate his new school, but also how to transform himself on his way to school. On the bus, he starts off as Jordan from Washington Heights, and by the time he reaches school, he is Jordan of Riverdale Academy. However, Jordan begins to feel more comfortable when he finally meets one of the other African American boys in his grade, Drew. The two boys find comfort in knowing they have so much in common and become instant friends. Over time, Jordan, Drew, and Liam all begin to hang out together, something that Jordan hadn’t even considered happening until his father suggested it. Jordan continues to make more friends, stand up for himself, and become more at ease in his new school. At the same time, Jordan still hangs out with his buddies in the neighborhood, who playfully nickname him “Private School” when he corrects their grammar.

Winner of both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King award, New Kid is one of a kind. The graphic novel reflects the modern day African American experience in a humorous yet serious way, with exceptional artwork that is entertaining and eye catching. This book is an excellent addition to any upper elementary and early middle school classroom. It will hold students’ interest, spark interesting discussions, and engage even the most reluctant readers.

Looking to find ideas for graphic novels ? Storyboard That has got you covered.

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Frequently Asked Questions about New Kid

Who is jordan in new kid .

Jordan is the main character in the story. He is a 12 year old African American boy in a school of predominantly white students. He must learn to navigate making new friends, ignorance, and class issues in a new school.

Is New Kid a true story?

Author Jerry Craft used a lot of his life experiences in this funny and heartwarming graphic novel. For example, Craft loosely based Riverdale Academy Day School on his high school, and the character of Jordan has real traits from Craft’s sons.

Is New Kid a graphic novel?

Yes, New Kid is a graphic novel.

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Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/need-a-summer-read-here-are-17-books-from-our-experts

Need a summer read? Here are 17 books from our experts

If you’re lucky enough to have a quiet place to retreat from the heat this summer, we’ve got a symphony of suggestions for novels and nonfiction to keep you entertained.

WATCH: Amy Tan turns her literary gaze on the world of birds in ‘The Backyard Bird Chronicles’

Ann Patchett, acclaimed writer and owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, and Gilbert Cruz, editor of The New York Times Book Review, recently joined PBS News Hour’s Jeffrey Brown to share their picks for summer reading.

”Sandwich” by Katherine Newman

“If you want a book that has you from ‘hello,’ this is the one. Family goes to the Cape every summer for two weeks. They have kids in their 20s, they have elderly parents and they eat sandwiches, they are very near Sandwich and they are the sandwich generation.” – Ann Patchett

“Sipsworth” by Simon Van Booy

“This is an elderly woman who’s very isolated. She meets a mouse, and the mouse brings all of these wonderful people into her life. It sounds hokey. It’s not.” – Ann Patchett

“Bear” by Julia Phillips

“Two young sisters working so hard in a very tough existence on an island off the coast of Washington. It all changes when a bear comes to their neighborhood and it drives the sisters apart.” – Ann Patchett

WATCH: How Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novels teach kids it’s OK to have ‘big feelings’

”Crook Manifesto” by Colson Whitehead

“If you want some mystery, some cops and robbers, some corruption, some great writing.” – Ann Patchett

“Swan Song” by Elin Hilderbrand

“I’ve only been to Nantucket for two hours on, like, the coldest day that I can recall, so I have no idea what it’s like to be there in the summer. But I sort of do, because I’ve read a dozen Elin Hilderbrand books.” – Gilbert Cruz

“Horror Movie” by Paul Tremblay

“This is about, essentially, an independent horror movie that was made years and years ago. A bunch of tragedies happened. It’s become a cult film. And the only person left from the production has started to encounter some weird things.” – Gilbert Cruz

“The Bright Sword” by Lev Grossman

“There have been many retellings of the King Arthur legend – books, movies, musicals. This one is sort of a sequel.” – Gilbert Cruz

“There’s Always This Year” by Hanif Abdurraqib

“This is a collection of essays about family and love and grief and fathers. But most importantly, it’s all woven together through the lens of basketball.” – Ann Patchett

“My Black Country” by Alice Randall

“Alice is a fiction writer and a scholar, but she is also the only Black woman to have written a No. 1 country song. This is a story of all the people who have been erased in country music’s past, and she is restoring them into the landscape.” – Ann Patchett

WATCH: Beyoncé brings new audience to country music and highlights the genre’s Black roots

”Consent” by Jill Ciment

“Jill Ciment was 16 years old when she first kissed her art teacher, who was 46. They got married and they stayed together until he died at 86. And it is her looking back on her life and thinking, ‘It was a happy marriage, but knowing what I know now, maybe there was something a little wrong about that?’”

And a bonus…

“Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma” by Claire Dederer

“…a great book that just came out in paperback that could be read as a companion piece.” – Ann Patchett

”The Future Was Now” by Chris Nashawaty

“The summer of 1982 – if you care about science fiction, fantasy, stuff like that – was one of the biggest summers of all time. So it had “E.T.”, “Poltergeist,” “Blade Runner,” “Tron,” a “Mad Max” sequel, a “Star Trek” sequel. And this is essentially a history of that summer, a history of those movies.” – Gilbert Cruz

“Cue The Sun! The Invention of Reality TV” by Emily Nussbaum

“Emily Nussbaum does an amazing job of sort of sketching that whole history and what they’re billing as sort of the first comprehensive history of this very important genre.” – Gilbert Cruz

And a few for the youngest readers…

“The Old Boat” by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey (board book)
“The Old Truck” by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey (board book)
“Ahoy” by Sophie Blackall
“Ferris” by Kate DiCamillo

In his more than 30-year career with the News Hour, Brown has served as co-anchor, studio moderator, and field reporter on a wide range of national and international issues, with work taking him around the country and to many parts of the globe. As arts correspondent he has profiled many of the world's leading writers, musicians, actors and other artists. Among his signature works at the News Hour: a multi-year series, “Culture at Risk,” about threatened cultural heritage in the United States and abroad; the creation of the NewsHour’s online “Art Beat”; and hosting the monthly book club, “Now Read This,” a collaboration with The New York Times.

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The Schools That Are No Longer Teaching Kids to Read Books

“It didn’t even feel like learning.”

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R ecently, an old friend of mine from elementary school ran a hand over my bookshelf, stopped, and said, “You stole this.”

“I did not!”

“Yes, you did. You totally stole it from school.”

She pulled out my copy of The Once and Future King , and showed me the inside of the front cover. It was stamped: Board of Education, City of New York .

Okay, so I stole it. But I had a good reason. I loved that book so much; I couldn’t bear to return it to the school library.

My grade-school memories are full of books: bulletin boards that tracked the class read-a-thons, hand-written book reports, summer-reading lists. But a student growing up, as I did, in New York City’s District 20 will have a very different experience today. The city has adopted a new literacy regimen under which many public elementary schools are, in effect, giving up the teaching of books—storybooks, narrative nonfiction books, children’s chapter books—altogether. The curriculum is part of an initiative from Eric Adams’s administration called, ironically, NYC Reads.

Read: Why kids aren’t falling in love with reading

Plummeting reading comprehension is a national problem , but it’s particularly acute in New York City. Half of its third to eighth graders—and 60 percent of those who are Black and Latino—cannot read at grade level . Although COVID drove those numbers down, a big factor has been the much-lambasted pedagogical method known as balanced literacy, which grew out of Columbia University’s Teachers College. Embraced by the city and then much of the nation back in 2003, balanced literacy attempted to teach kids to read not through phonics, but by exposing them to books of their choice in order to foster a love of reading. The appalling literacy numbers speak volumes about the efficacy of this approach.

Elementary schools are now replacing balanced literacy with a different pedagogy, called the science of reading, based on a large body of research finding that learning to read and write well requires phonics, vocabulary development, and content and context comprehension. The Adams administration announced NYC Reads in May 2023 to make sure that schools followed through with this proven approach. “The data shows that young readers learn best when there is explicit phonics instruction, and a young reader cannot experience the joys of reading if they do not know how to read,” a spokesperson for the city’s public schools told me. So far, so good. The schools were given three curricula to choose from, and each district’s superintendent was to make a decision after conferring with principals and parents. Half of the city’s districts were selected for Phase 1 of the rollout and had to adopt a curriculum immediately. Phase 2 schools begin their new curriculum this September.

Although all three curricula are rooted in the science of reading and have met the standards of EdReports—an independent curriculum reviewer—they are not created equal. One, called EL Education, implements the science of reading by using fiction and nonfiction books, such as Hey, Little Ant and The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind , to teach students not just to read, but also to talk about real-world issues. Another, called the Wit & Wisdom curriculum, also uses books, such as Stone Soup and Ruby Bridges Goes to School , to “pique curiosity” in students.

But the third, called Into Reading, replaces individual books with one textbook for each grade, all called myBook .

The myBook s are filled with lessons on phonics for younger kids and then, as the grades go up through elementary school, with reading content made up of excerpts of longer narrative texts. MyBook is what is known in education circles as a “decodable text,” but one mom I spoke with, Alina Lewis, likened it to a “Dick and Jane reader.” Where kids used to read and discuss whole books, they now get a few paragraphs at a time and then are prompted to answer a question. Reading has been distilled to practicing for a comprehension exam.

Beginning in September, this is what the majority of elementary-school kids in New York City will be doing. More than two-thirds of its school districts selected the Into Reading curriculum. For those kids, learning to read will no longer revolve around books.

Both the publisher behind Into Reading, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and the city’s department of education rejected the idea that this curriculum does away with books. “It is blatantly untrue that any of the curriculum options under NYC Reads eliminates engaging with whole books,” the city spokesperson told me, adding that “80 percent of the selections within Into Reading are full-length kids books.” An HMH spokesperson quoted the same statistic to me.

What, exactly, were they referring to? If 80 percent of myBook were made up of cover-to-cover books, no child’s backpack could handle it. In part they seemed to be counting books that a teacher might make available to students. “Into Reading incorporates multiple opportunities for kids to read full-length books at every grade level,” the publisher’s spokesperson wrote in an email. “This includes whole books that are reproduced within the student myBook but also book club/small group novel reading, classroom library reading selections for small and independent reading opportunities, and read-aloud full book selections.” But teachers, parents, and students say that, in practice, the curriculum doesn’t leave much time for such opportunities.

When I asked for examples of books that were included within myBook itself, the city spokesperson pointed to Kitoto the Mighty , by Tololwa M. Mollel, for fourth grade. Let me tell you: I have now read Kitoto the Mighty . It’s lovely, but it’s basically a picture book. It’s a far cry from a chapter book that builds reading stamina like, say, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing —or a chapter-book series like Alvin Ho that might keep kids devouring book after book for weeks.

O ne sunny day in the spring of 2023, before the Adams mandate went into effect, I hopped on the train not toward Manhattan, as usual, but farther into Brooklyn. I was heading to speak to a fifth-grade writing class at P.S. 503 in Sunset Park, close to where I grew up. The principal, Nina Demos, and I had been first-grade classmates, and had been in touch off and on throughout our lives.

P.S. 503 is located in District 20, the same district that Demos and I had attended as girls. It is now, as it was then, composed primarily of lower-income, Latino families, many of them recent immigrants. When I visited, the students had been writing their own books—graphic novels or chapter books about Latino superheroes, or immigrant kids who missed their old soccer team. We talked about the difference between imagining a draft and the work of revision. They read passages from their stories and peppered me with questions about writing a novel and what Sunset Park was like when I was a kid.

But that was before the new curriculum, which District 20 began teaching in September. Theoretically, Into Reading gives teachers some independence to shape their own classes, but in District 20, teachers and parents say, the rollout has been draconian. Teachers have been subject to constant evaluation to ensure that they are teaching Into Reading purely, while students face frequent assessments to ensure that they’re meeting each benchmark. Little room is left over for class visitors or story time or exploratory reading.

Alina Lewis is a District 20 parent—her children go not to P.S. 503 but to the district’s gifted-and-talented school, called Brooklyn School of Inquiry—and she has led a fierce opposition to the new curriculum. She told me how the first year under Into Reading went at BSI: “They’d come in from the [Department of Education], and they’d literally go into the classrooms and make sure there were no remnants” of the old style of teaching.

BSI was an outlier: Before the switch, more than 85 percent of students were already reading at or above grade level. The data for this year aren’t in yet, but the student reviews are: They miss books. And they’re bored.

At a DOE forum in March, students from BSI’s middle school testified about their experience with the Into Reading curriculum. “It didn’t even feel like learning,” Carlo Murray said. It “felt like the state test prep that we do every year.”

“We are this far into the school year,” Kira Odenhal said, “and unfortunately we are only reading our second whole book.”

Though the city’s spokesperson told me that decisions were made after “a rigorous engagement process with superintendents and communities,” many District 20 parents felt blindsided by the new curriculum. When BSI’s principal announced the district’s choice at the school’s May PTA meeting, Lewis told me, “the parents went nuts; we flipped out.”

Lewis was well-versed in all three curricula. A former teacher and school administrator, she was a doctoral candidate in educational theory and practice when the mandate came down. Equipped with her experience and research skills, and without a 9 to 5 to tie her down, Lewis organized a campaign to obtain a waiver for Brooklyn School of Inquiry. The students were so disenchanted with the new curriculum that enlisting other families to her cause was easy.

They wrote letters, met with the superintendent, attended meetings of the DOE—including the one in which children testified about missing books—and courted local press. And they won: This fall, Brooklyn School of Inquiry will be allowed to return to its own curriculum.

F ew other Phase 1 schools have access to a parent with as much time and know-how as Lewis. If you look at a map of Phase 1, you’ll see that it includes many districts in the city’s most heavily immigrant, Black, and brown areas. Just a single district in Manhattan is in Phase 1, and it’s the one that covers parts of Harlem, East Harlem, and Spanish Harlem. In Brooklyn, Phase 1 skipped over District 15, which includes wealthy Park Slope, and District 13, among the highest ranked in the city, which runs through the posh areas of DUMBO, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, and what, to me, feels like the most gentrified slice of Bed-Stuy. I know because I live there.

“It’s not an accident who is Phase 1 and Phase 2,” Lewis told me. “I think we took them by surprise because they literally sought all the either Black and brown districts or the heavily immigrant districts. And they figured they’d be quiet.”

The DOE disputes this. “The socioeconomic demographics of a district were not among the deciding factors,” the department’s spokesperson told me. Instead, districts were chosen for Phase 1 because they had had greater exposure to the new way of teaching already, she said: “The districts participating in Phase 2 were districts where fewer schools were familiar with the new curriculum and therefore benefited greatly from the additional training time.” It’s true that many teachers had already started relying on Into Reading. This is, in part, because during the pandemic, when teachers were scrambling for materials, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt made all of its courses free online. But the city’s rationale raises the question: If the curriculum is so good, and many schools are already using it, why are their reading scores so low?

The rollout in District 13 will be very different from that of District 20. Being in Phase 2 gave the schools an extra year to carefully choose their curriculum. The superintendent, Meghan Dunn, held focus groups with parents, meetings with principals, and even sit-downs with representatives from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and the nonprofit groups that created the other two curricula, so everyone could better understand which would align with the district’s needs. Dunn met with at least one school’s PTA to assure them that teachers would still have flexibility in implementing whatever was chosen.

That school, P.S. 11, like Brooklyn School for Inquiry, also had high reading rates, and parents were deeply concerned about fixing something that wasn’t broken. Unlike many other affluent city school districts, District 13 is notably diverse, and wanted to be sure that the chosen curriculum would be sensitive to that. In January, Dunn sent parents a letter announcing that she had selected the EL Education curriculum and outlining the process behind the decision. She explained that teachers would begin curriculum training immediately—giving them an additional five months of professional development that teachers at Phase 1 schools were not afforded. Her letter closed with her commitment to fostering “proficiency and a love of reading and writing.”

T he Park Slope district went with Wit & Wisdom. So did District 2, the one that includes the Upper East Side. Not one of the city’s three top-ranking districts selected Into Reading. But 22 of the city’s 32 total districts did.

This is especially surprising given that a 2022 analysis by New York University had criticized Into Reading for lacking stories about or written by people of color. Across the grade-level texts, for every 100 main characters, only 18 were Black, 13 were Asian, and 12 were Latino. The texts “used language and tone that demeaned and dehumanized Black, Indigenous and characters of color, while encouraging empathy and connection with White characters,” the report concluded. For a school system that is 65 percent Black or Hispanic, and 17 percent Asian, that is a pretty damning critique. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt released a statement saying that the report was “deeply flawed” and “mischaracterizes Into Reading as a whole.”)

How, then, to account for the popularity of this curriculum among school administrators? One answer might simply be good marketing. Another might be ease.

As a large corporation, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was probably better positioned to advertise its curriculum than the nonprofits that own EL Education and Wit & Wisdom were. Into Reading was already familiar to many teachers because of its availability during the pandemic. Those who hadn’t yet used it were likely reassured by its reputation as the easiest for teachers to unpack, which was a significant upside, given the short window Phase 1 schools had for teacher training.

When asked about this short window, the DOE replied that Phase 1 teachers all “received professional development throughout Spring 2023, with makeup sessions during the summer” and “individual coaching” through the school year. But teachers have been vocal about feeling unprepared, according to the education site Chalkbeat .

Into Reading is also the only curriculum available fully in English and Spanish, making it a reasonable choice for a school with a lot of ESL students (though this is a particularly cruel irony in light of the troubling findings about its racial bias).

P.S. 503 is not a gifted-and-talented school. Its student body includes ESL learners and students with learning disabilities. About 47 percent of its students score proficient in reading. This year, according to Demos, the principal, the data look comparable or slightly better than the year before. But she notes that that has been the case every year for the past nine years. Demos has criticisms of Into Reading, but she admitted that “there are aspects of it that I appreciate more than I thought I was going to.” She said that its insistence on assessments and standards seems helpful for students who are reading close to, but not quite at, grade level. “And I do think that that is something that I feel is successful, and that we as a school need to reflect on. Like, were our practices in the past holding students in that category back? Has this curriculum helped us push the rigor for those students?”

The improvement among those mid-performing readers is proof that the shift away from balanced literacy toward a science-based approach is correct. But New York could have done so much better than this rushed rollout, the loss of teacher autonomy, and above all the depressing myBook itself.

“The requirements and the mandates are so excessive,” Demos said, that teachers have no time to help students engage with books for pleasure. This was something the BSI students complained about during their public hearing. Demos recounted a parent saying that her child is “doing really well with this curriculum,” but that the child wasn’t having the experience of “falling in love with a series, falling in love with reading.” (One wonders whether Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thought this through: Training the next generation out of the habit of reading books doesn’t seem to be in a book publisher’s best long-term interest.)

Read: How to show kids the joy of reading

When we were kids, I used to go over Demos’s house, and we’d lie in her room and read. She introduced me to the Little House books. We’d talk about Laura and Mary Ingalls as if they were our friends, too, as if we lived not in Brooklyn but out there on the prairie. When Demos talks about kids losing their love of reading, the loss feels visceral to me. I had some amazing teachers over my years in public school, but I had some duds too. The books we read expanded my mind, regardless of who was in front of my class.

Knowing how to read is crucial, but loving to read is a form of power, one that helps kids grow into curious, engaged, and empathetic adults. And it shouldn’t belong only to New York’s most privileged students.

Christian writer's new book reminds kids what makes them different makes them special

In Jonathan Merritt's new book <em>My Guncle and Me</em>, a little boy's gay uncle helps him understand that being different makes him special.

Evangelical Christian writer Jonathan Merritt has written books with titles like Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined and A Faith Of Our Own aimed at younger evangelicals looking to distinguish their faith from that of their parents. Merritt’s new children’s book is something of a departure. It’s called My Guncle and Me .

The guncle — a portmanteau of the words gay and uncle — comes to visit his awkward nephew, who tells the story:

"My name's Henry Higgleston, and kids think I'm strange. My hair, clothes and voice - there's a lot I would change. But right now, I'm excited, because today's Saturday, and my most fabulous relative is coming to stay."

That "fabulous relative" teaches Henry that being different isn’t just okay, it makes him special.

"You write the book you wish you had as a child,” says Merritt, “and when people read this, they immediately say, OK, I get it - you're the guncle. I mean, the guncle even kind of looks like me.”

Illustrator Joanna Carillo drew the guncle as a bit of a dandy, with a five o'clock shadow and a French bulldog named Jimmy Chew.

“The present-day me was able to travel back in time to a past version of me,” explains Merritt, “and to get down on one knee, and look that kid in the eye and tell him what I know now he needed to hear.”

But Merritt didn't always know what he needed to hear. He's the son of a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and a former pastor himself. Coming out as gay meant rethinking his life — though not, it turns out, the core of his faith.

Merritt doesn’t shy away from addressing his Christianity directly in the story:

"At church the next morning, my guncle sings loudly. He prays and gives thanks, and he does it devoutly. His bright-colored outfit makes two women stare. When we pass, they both snicker, but he doesn't care."

Merritt says not many children's books include LGBTQ characters who are clearly Christian.

“A lot of people today are told by the religious people in their lives,” says Merritt, “that they can either be people of faith or they can be gay. That is a false choice, and I think it's important for children to know that.”

Odd man out to Christians and LGBTQ+ People

Increasing numbers of people of faith agree that it’s a false choice. But what’s surprised Merritt are the reactions he's been getting while reading from My Guncle and Me during queer story times at bookstores and libraries.

“I'm so used to very religious people looking at me strange because I'm gay, and now I'm in the opposite situation,” says Merritt, “Where I have my queer brothers and sisters who are looking at me with those same weird faces because of my faith.”

Merritt wants to be clear, his book isn't just for kids with guncles or for kids who might be LGBTQ+. He says it’s a story about accepting yourself in whatever way you might be different from everyone else.

That message resonates with 6-year-old Phoebe Riddle, who noticed the expression on the guncle's face as he sings in church.

“He looks like he doesn't notice, and he's like, ‘Oh, I don't care. I'll just move along,” says Phoebe.

She relates to the emotions the nephew experiences and appreciates how the guncle encourages Henry not to be so worried about what other people think.

“I really liked that part,” says Phoebe, “because sometimes, at school, I feel sad, but then I just get back up.”

The lesson is slightly different for Phoebe's 11-year-old brother, Thomas.

“I don't think ‘gay’ is funny,” he says, “I think it's something that people actually like. LGBTQ people don't want to be made fun of.”

Merritt's message is that God is love

To a certain extent the lessons in My Guncle and Me aren’t just for kids, many of whom have grown up in environments where LGBTQ+ people aren’t considered that unusual. The adults who are reading the book to their kids, says Merritt, might have something to learn as well.

“All of us come to understand the what of our identity: What are we like? What do we feel? What are we attracted to?” he says. “But there's always a why behind the what. Why are we this way?”

That "why" for Merritt, isn't based on endless arguments of nature versus nurture — whether being LGBTQ+ is based on biology or environment. Rather, the why is grounded in his faith.

“The driving force that's making us who we are, at least in the Christian conception, is God. And God is love,” says Merritt. “That means that love is making you who you are — gay or straight, cisgender or transgender. Love is the driving force that is making you that way, and that love is loving you always.”

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Surgeon General Calls for Warning Labels on Social Media Platforms

Dr. Vivek Murthy said he would urge Congress to require a warning that social media use can harm teenagers’ mental health.

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Surgeon General Vivek Murthy speaking and holding a microphone. He is wearing a dark blue military jacket.

By Ellen Barry and Cecilia Kang

The U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, announced on Monday that he would push for a warning label on social media platforms advising parents that using the platforms might damage adolescents’ mental health.

Warning labels — like those that appear on tobacco and alcohol products — are one of the most powerful tools available to the nation’s top health official, but Dr. Murthy cannot unilaterally require them; the action requires approval by Congress.

The proposal builds on several years of escalating warnings from the surgeon general. In a May 2023 advisory, he recommended that parents immediately set limits on phone use, and urged Congress to swiftly develop health and safety standards for technology platforms.

He also called on tech companies to make changes: to share internal data on the health impact of their products; to allow independent safety audits; and restrict features like push notifications, autoplay and infinite scroll, which he says “prey on developing brains and contribute to excessive use.”

In an interview, Dr. Murthy said he had been deeply frustrated by the platforms’ reluctance to do so.

“I don’t think we can solely rely on the hope that the platforms can fix this problem on their own,” he said. “They’ve had 20 years.”

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New report shows Kansas and Missouri kids are still recovering from the pandemic

A large first grade class heads outdoors on May 7 at George Melcher Elementary School in Kansas City, Missouri. The school has seen rapid enrollment growth this year.

Fewer children in Missouri and Kansas live in high-poverty areas, but students continue to grapple with math and reading after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools, according to the latest Kids Count report

The annual child wellness report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation ranks states on kids’ economic well-being, education, health, and family and community. Kansas ranked 19 overall, and Missouri ranked 32 — both a couple places below last year.

Ryan Reza, data and policy analyst for Kansas Action for Children , said states across the country improved in every measure of how families are doing since 2019.

In 2022, fewer children in Missouri and Kansas lived in single-parent families and in families headed by someone without a high school diploma. Fewer people had children as teenagers, as well.

“We want to see that trend continue in the years moving away from the pandemic, and to make sure that we don't see any lasting influence of the pandemic — whether that's pandemic-era support programs’ decline, or getting off the books or families having their livelihoods altered,” Reza said.

Fewer children in Kansas and the same percentage in Missouri lived in poverty since before the pandemic began. Kansas Action for Children said pandemic-era support programs like the child tax credit and easier access to health care helped.

But much of that aid has since expired, and Reza said indicators that directly influence poverty, like food insecurity, are heading in the wrong direction and may cause declines in future reports.

Tracy Greever-Rice, project director for the Missouri Kids Count , said families may still feel burdened, even as they make more money, because they have fewer public resources.

In Missouri, 22% of children live in households where families spend more than a third of their income on housing.

“If you have a third of your working time spent just covering those basics, what are you not able to do for your kids that you'd really like to be doing?” Greever-Rice said.

Rising teen and child mortality rates

Missouri ranks 40th in the country for children’s health. Children weigh less at birth than they did in 2019, and mortality rates for children and teens rose. Kansas ranks 19th for health, but saw the same patterns.

Child and teen mortality rates in Kansas went up to 35 deaths per 100,000 in 2022, compared to 28 in 2019. Missouri’s rate jumped to 41 deaths, compared to 32 in 2019.

Reza said the report’s mortality rate numbers differ from the Kansas Child Death Review Board’s data because Kids Count includes all child deaths in the state.

The Kansas Child Death Review Board’s latest report found that the overall death rate for teens and children hit a record low in 2021 and the rate of deaths from natural causes is also trending downward.

The death rate because of homicide in Kansas was stable from 2017 to 2020 but increased to 32 child homicides in 2021, compared to 22 in 2020. The report found the death rate because of suicide is also trending downwards since a peak in 2018, but still increased in 2021.

The Kansas report also found drug-related deaths increased significantly in the past two years. Twenty children died from fentanyl overdoses in 2020 and 2021. No children died from the opioid in 2017, 2018 or 2019.

In Missouri, suicide is the third-leading cause of death for children and teens from ages 10-17, according to Kids Count, and 43 children died from fentanyl in 2020.

Greever-Rice said the COVID pandemic has had lasting impacts on children’s mental health.

“Children in that age cohort were really negatively impacted by the COVID pandemic in terms of isolation, learning new tools and routes for both education as well as socializing and communication with each other,” Greever-Rice said.

Chronic absenteeism and adverse childhood experiences

The Annie E. Casey Foundation also looked at the increase in chronic absenteeism and high rates of adverse childhood experiences since the pandemic began.

Chronic absenteeism is typically measured as missing more than 10% of school days. In the 2021-22 school year, 27% of students in Kansas and 20% of students in Missouri weren’t regularly at school.

Adverse childhood experiences are traumatic events that affect children in the long term — like economic hardship, experiencing domestic or community violence, living with someone who has a mental illness or substance use problem or facing discrimination based on race or ethnicity.

In Kansas, 40% of children, and in Missouri, 43% experienced one or more adverse childhood experience.

The report argues that both measures make it harder for children to show up ready to learn in the classroom — if they’re there at all — which contributed to declining academic performance in recent years.

Students in Missouri and Kansas are still struggling to reach proficiency in reading and math, according to the Kids Count data. In Missouri, 76% of eighth graders were not proficient in math and 70% of fourth graders were not proficient in reading.

In Missouri, 76% of eighth graders were not proficient in math and 70% of fourth graders were not proficient in reading.

Adrienne Olejnik, vice president of Kansas Action for Children, said her organization wants more support for families, like a state-level child-tax credit that lets families put money toward child care, housing, groceries or whatever they need.

“We start to see households become more financially insecure, or not being able to put food on the table for every meal,” Olejnik. “It's more likely that children will start to experience high levels of absenteeism and adverse childhood experiences, and it gets into this wicked cycle that then affects their ability to learn.”

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Christian writer's new book reminds kids what makes them different makes them special

Jason DeRose

Jonathan Merritt's book reminds kids what makes them different makes them special

In Jonathan Merritt's new book My Guncle and Me , a little boy's gay uncle helps him understand that being different makes him special. Hachette Book Group hide caption

The guncle — a portmanteau of the words gay and uncle — comes to visit his awkward nephew, who tells the story:

That "fabulous relative" teaches Henry that being different isn’t just okay, it makes him special.

Angie Cox, left, and Joelle Henneman hug after an approval vote at the United Methodist Church General Conference that repealed their church's longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings.

United Methodist Church lifts bans on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings

Illustrator Joanna Carillo drew the guncle as a bit of a dandy, with a five o'clock shadow and a French bulldog named Jimmy Chew.

Merritt doesn’t shy away from addressing his Christianity directly in the story:

Merritt says not many children's books include LGBTQ characters who are clearly Christian.

Odd man out to Christians and LGBTQ+ People

That message resonates with 6-year-old Phoebe Riddle, who noticed the expression on the guncle's face as he sings in church.

“He looks like he doesn't notice, and he's like, ‘Oh, I don't care. I'll just move along,” says Phoebe.

She relates to the emotions the nephew experiences and appreciates how the guncle encourages Henry not to be so worried about what other people think.

“I really liked that part,” says Phoebe, “because sometimes, at school, I feel sad, but then I just get back up.”

The lesson is slightly different for Phoebe's 11-year-old brother, Thomas.

“I don't think ‘gay’ is funny,” he says, “I think it's something that people actually like. LGBTQ people don't want to be made fun of.”

Merritt's message is that God is love

“All of us come to understand the what of our identity: What are we like? What do we feel? What are we attracted to?” he says. “But there's always a why behind the what. Why are we this way?”

That "why" for Merritt, isn't based on endless arguments of nature versus nurture — whether being LGBTQ+ is based on biology or environment. Rather, the why is grounded in his faith.

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A modern-day avatar of Vishnu, a Hindu god, who is believed to have descended to earth to protect the world from evil forces. A modern-day avatar of Vishnu, a Hindu god, who is believed to have descended to earth to protect the world from evil forces. A modern-day avatar of Vishnu, a Hindu god, who is believed to have descended to earth to protect the world from evil forces.

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New Kid
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New Kid Summary and Study Guide
New Kid by Jerry Craft is a 2019 graphic novel and winner of the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award. Jim Callahan is responsible for the coloring. Craft is the creator of the 1990 comic strip Mama's Boyz and Class Act, the 2020 companion story to this book.New Day focuses on an artistic middle school student who makes friends and builds confidence in himself as he navigates race ...
New Kid (New Kid, #1) by Jerry Craft
JERRY CRAFT is the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of the graphic novels New Kid and Class Act. New Kid is the only book in history to win the John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature (2020); the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature (2019), and the Coretta Scott King Author Award for the most outstanding work by an African ...
New Kid Summary
New Kid Summary. New Kid begins with Jordan Banks, a 12-year-old Black boy, sitting with his parents in their living room in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Jordan draws in his sketchbook while his mother looks at the website of Riverdale Academy Day School (RAD), the elite private school where she has enrolled him.
New Kid
New Kid is a 2019 graphic novel by Jerry Craft. The novel tells the story of a 12-year-old African American boy named Jordan Banks who experiences culture shock when he enrolls at a private school. During Jordan's freshman year at a prestigious private school, he has to adjust to a new school, experiences and witnesses microaggressions, and ...
New Kid by written and illustrated by Jerry Craft
Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang, NEW KID is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real, from award-winning author-illustrator Jerry Craft. Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life.
NEW KID
winner. IndieBound Bestseller. Jordan Banks takes readers down the rabbit hole and into his mostly white prep school in this heartbreakingly accurate middle-grade tale of race, class, microaggressions, and the quest for self-identity. He may be the new kid, but as an African-American boy from Washington Heights, that stigma entails so much more ...
New Kid : Book summary and reviews of New Kid by Jerry Craft
New Kid is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real. Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for ...
New Kid: A Newbery Award Winner
New Kid. : Jerry Craft. HarperCollins, Feb 5, 2019 - Juvenile Fiction - 256 pages. Winner of the Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature! Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang, New Kid is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity ...
New Kid: A Newbery Award Winner: Craft, Jerry, Craft, Jerry
Jerry Craft is the author-illustrator of #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novels New Kid and its companion book, Class Act. New Kid was the first book in history to win the Newbery Medal, the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature. In his latest book, School Trip, Jerry hopes to share his love ...
Book Review: New Kid
When I originally chose the books I planned to read in this course, I thought Eleanor & Park would be my only banned / challenged book selection. On October 6, 2021, I was surprised to read that New Kid had been challenged by a parent in Katy ISD for, according to the parent, teaching "critical race theory" (Li, 2021, para 1). Although the book was reviewed and reinstated by the district a ...
New Kid, Book 1 Book Review
Parents say ( 102 ): Kids say ( 11 ): The move to middle school confuses many students and has inspired many comics, but this funny and heartfelt graphic novel covers new territory. Throughout New Kid, seventh-grader Jordan Banks proves to be a sensitive and likable protagonist, eager for friendship but unsure how to fit in a school culture ...
New Kid by Jerry Craft
About the Book. Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang, New Kid is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real, from award-winning author-illustrator Jerry Craft. Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life.
New Kid Study Guide
Jerry Craft's New Kid is a graphic novel about a Black seventh grader who struggles to adjust to the upscale, mostly white private school in which his mother has enrolled him. New Kid made headlines in 2021 when a Texas school district pulled the book from classes after white parents erroneously complained that it promoted Critical Race Theory, which Craft says he had never heard of.
New Kid Summary of Key Ideas and Review
Brief summary. New Kid by Jerry Craft is a captivating graphic novel that follows Jordan Banks, a 12-year-old African American boy, as he navigates the challenges of being the new kid at a prestigious private school while confronting issues of race and identity. Give Feedback. Topics.
New Kid Quotes and Analysis
New Kid study guide contains a biography of Jerry Craft, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. ... In this exchange, the book's title gains new meaning: No longer the new kid starting at an unfamiliar school, he is a "new kid" in the sense of being reborn as a more confident and content ...
New Kid: A Newbery Award Winner Kindle & comiXology
Kindle & comiXology. by Jerry Craft (Author, Illustrator) Format: Kindle Edition. 4.7 9,384 ratings. #1 Best Seller in Children's Prejudice & Racism books. See all formats and editions. Winner of the Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature! Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Gene ...
New Kid Series by Jerry Craft
Book 3. School Trip. by Jerry Craft. 4.21 · 3,288 Ratings · 543 Reviews · published 2023 · 5 editions. New York Times bestselling author Jerry Craft is b…. More. Want to Read. Rate it: New Kid (New Kid, #1), Class Act (New Kid, #2), and School Trip (New Kid, #3)
New Kid Book Review
Parents say Not yet rated Rate book. Kids say ( 1 ): Bestselling author Tim Green, who writes frequently about sports, spins an engrossing tale for young baseball players, male and female, with a climax that ends on the last pitch. The writing in NEW KID is mostly sharp but sometimes dips into sentiments worthy of a needlepoint pillow.
School Trip (New Kid, #3) by Jerry Craft
JERRY CRAFT is the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of the graphic novels New Kid and Class Act. New Kid is the only book in history to win the John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature (2020); the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature (2019), and the Coretta Scott King Author Award for the most outstanding work by an African ...
Book Summary
What age group is this book appropriate for? New Kid is recommended for readers aged 8-12, but its themes and messages can resonate with audiences of all ages. Has the book won any awards? Yes, New Kid has won numerous awards, including the Newbery Medal, the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature. ...
New Kid by Jerry Craft
New Kid Summary. Jordan Banks is a 12 year old African American boy who loves to draw. He lives with his parents in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City and dreams of attending art school. He keeps a scrapbook of all of his comics and drawings, and feels right at home where he lives. When his parents approach him about going to ...
New Kid book report by Thakshiya Jeganathan on Prezi
New kid Book Report Name: Thakshi Characters Characters Protagonist(s) Jordan Likes: Sketching Dislikes: Sports, the cold Description: Kind, funny, a bit brave, a bit shy, creative Antagonist(s) Andy Likes: Soccer Dislikes: Drew Description: Mean, rude, unpopular, bully, racist
Need a summer read? Here are 17 books from our experts
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'MyBook' Is Coming for Your Children
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Christian writer's new book reminds kids what makes them different
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Christian writer's new book reminds kids what makes them ...
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Kalki 2898 AD (2024)
Kalki 2898 AD: Directed by Nag Ashwin. With Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Deepika Padukone. A modern-day avatar of Vishnu, a Hindu god, who is believed to have descended to earth to protect the world from evil forces.

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