The New York Times Book Review - Victoria Jamieson
…Jerry Craft's new graphic novel, is a gift to readers who love the genre…As a realistic graphic novel starring a kid of color, New Kid is a desperately needed addition to middle-grade library collections everywhere. This funny, heartwarming and sometimes cringe-inducing take on middle school is sure to resonate deeply with its young audience…New Kid is at once tender and tough, funny and heartbreaking. Hand this to the middle-grade reader in your life right away.
From the Publisher
Funny, sharp, and totally real! Jordan Banks is the kid everyone will be talking about!” — Jeff Kinney, Author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid
★“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)
★“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)
★ “Award-winning author/illustrator Jerry Craft confronts elitism, microaggression, racism, socioeconomic disparity and white privilege in a familiar setting. His preteen audiences will undoubtedly recognize and empathize with Craft’s memorable cast.” — Shelf Awareness, (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
“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
"This story captures the tensions that come with being a person of color in a traditionally white space." — Publishers Weekly
“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
“An honest and compelling read for any kid looking for a place to belong.” — Scholastic Teacher Magazine
“This beautifully crafted work captures ‘tween angst, recognizes everyday and systemic injustice, and challenges everyone to do better by every kid." — The San Francisco Chronicle
Shelf Awareness
★ “Award-winning author/illustrator Jerry Craft confronts elitism, microaggression, racism, socioeconomic disparity and white privilege in a familiar setting. His preteen audiences will undoubtedly recognize and empathize with Craft’s memorable cast.
The New York Times Book Review
New Kid is at once tender and tough, funny and heartbreaking. Hand this to the middle-grade reader in your life right away.
Horn Book Magazine
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.
Booklist (starred review)
★“Possibly one of the most important graphic novels of the year.
Cooperative Children’s Book Center
Genuine characters propel this funny, warm, biting, fearless story. Entertaining and insightful, it will surely offer affirmation for some readers, revelation for others.
Jeff Kinney
Funny, sharp, and totally real! Jordan Banks is the kid everyone will be talking about!
The San Francisco Chronicle
This beautifully crafted work captures ‘tween angst, recognizes everyday and systemic injustice, and challenges everyone to do better by every kid."
Scholastic Teacher Magazine
An honest and compelling read for any kid looking for a place to belong.
Booklist (starred review)
★“Possibly one of the most important graphic novels of the year.
Cooperative Children's Book Center
Genuine characters propel this funny, warm, biting, fearless story. Entertaining and insightful, it will surely offer affirmation for some readers, revelation for others.
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2018-10-15
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.
An engrossing, humorous, and vitally important graphic novel that should be required reading in every middle school in America. (Graphic fiction. 10-14)
