Navigating Hostile Spaces: New Kid

I had been worried about Jerry Craft's New Kid (2019), a graphic novel chronicling seventh grader Jordan Banks's first year in a predominately white private school.  Brilliant in every way, I had felt like the book wasn't getting the attention it deserved. And so, it was with joy that I heard it won the 2020 Coretta Scott King Award and Newbery Medal. Both awards are well-deserved, for New Kid is beautifully crafted (pun intended) and addresses serious topics with humanity and humor.

Exploring the concept of identity--the factors that influence, change, and/or define it--my seventh graders were primed to fall in love with New Kid, too, once I recommended it for independent reading. By the time they finished the first chapter, my students were sold on the novel. This is because Jordan's personality and family were quickly and clearly established and presented in ways that my kids could relate. Jordan Banks is your regular, seventh grade boy trying to find his place in a new middle school in which his race and class become identity factors impacting his experience.

New Kid isn't action-packed, which I found to be a strength, for it highlights that, in addition to the regular life challenges the typical preteen faces in middle school, Jordan, a black boy, also must contend with microaggressions that amplify the sense of being "other."  In fact, through an authentic cast of supporting characters and experiences, Craft highlights the insidious nature of systemic racism and the ways in which we are all impacted as a result. Craft skillfully makes this point through humor and vibrant, dynamic drawings.

A much needed addition to the graphic novel genre, New Kid is a coming-of-age story that is a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Get it, along with its companion Class Act (2020).