Title: New Kid by Jerry Craft
Genre: Fiction -Graphic Novel
Targeted Age: Ages 8 - 12
Plot Summary: Jordan Banks, begins attending a private school and is one of only a few African Americans students. He longs to attend art school and uses his drawings to chronicle the experiences he is having. The new school is a world of prejudice and racism for the minority students and teacher. This book points out that individuals matter, knowing who they are means more than just the color of their skin or the language spoken at home. Jordan learns how to vocalize his feelings at school and have confidence in himself that he can help make a difference.
Justification for book choice: This award winning book has a lot of lessons about dealing with conflicts. It earned a Coretta Scott King award among others. It is well-written and deals with difficult topics sometimes in a light hearted way to make it appropriate and approachable for younger audiences.
Evaluation:
Illustrations: Graphic novels allow for the images to tell more of the story than just the words. There was some variation in the illustrations as well as the main story used color but the images that Jordan drew in his notebook were in black and white. This allowed for different types of illustrations telling the story. Characters: The story line is centered on Jordan and those he interacts with at school and at home. Jordan maintains an outside perspective on his new school. We see the difficulties the students of color have at the school through him. We also follow his feelings as he finds his way through the various lifestyles of his friends and how he deals with the social economic differences. Jordan is a catalyst for change at his school. The changes may not affect the entire school, but they do influence the lives of those around him. His behavior is unusual but isn't too exaggerated to be unbelievable. He is a realistic hero for the readers about how to treat others.
Tone: The tone of this book could easily have been dark and depressing because of the difficult topics of bullying, prejudice and racial and economic inequity. Instead, staying true to the intended audience, some humor was injected without ignoring the tough topics. Examples of the humor include Drew and Jordan intentionally calling each other the wrong names, the illustrations of Jordan's reactions with angels, and the jokes with Liam about judging. Balancing the hard topics, Jordan and friends found ways to laugh.