New Kid by Jerry Craft

 

The cover of New Kid by Jerry Craft 

The graphic novel New Kid written by Jerry Craft is about Jordan Banks a seventh grader who is navigating the challenges that come with going to a prestigious private school and experiencing a culture shock. Once Jordan starts at this school he quickly realizes that he is one of the few students of color in his entire grade which presents him with a different learning environment than he is used to. As the year progresses, we see Jordan start to adapt to the private school environment like he does when riding the bus through different parts of the city. He has a hard time learning how to balance both sides of his life, his old school and friends vs his new school and new friends. Once he starts making friends in his new school he becomes reluctant with introducing his two friend groups to each other but he eventually brings them together after some encouraging words from his grandfather. He has to go through his school day interacting with students like Andy who bullies everyone just because he feels like he can and will have no consequences for his actions because of his privilege. Or how his teacher Ms. Rawle shows she doesn't care because she can't take the time to learn her students names, for example by calling Drew, Jordan's friend a completely different name for a school year. Throughout the book you can see Ms. Rawle not care about the micro-aggressions she is showing towards Drew and Jordan especially when she reads Jordan's notebook and sees his opinions through his drawings. But when confronted by Jordan Ms. Rawle gets defensive and calls him an angry person and how he should be grateful he's at RAD, which Jordan refuses that claim because everyone has their own experiences that affect their opinions toward something. At the end of the novel, Jordan helps Alexandra a classmate of his that wears a puppet on her hand, which we learn is because she has a burn on her hand and is insecure about it. Jordan helps Alexandra by telling Ashley, the school's gossip, tell everyone else and once the students see Alexandra's scar it helps her realize that it wasn't as bad as she had thought and helps her feel more confident. Then on the last day of school, Jordan arrives dressed like Liam and without his jacket for the first time and towards the end of the day after seeing no one sign Andy's yearbook he signs it. Once he gets picked up by his parents they say how he's changed and become more confident and is like a "New Kid."

When Jordan was receiving advice from his grandfather. 

Throughout the book it shows the reader how micro-aggressions can be shown and that people of color and in this case black people experience in their daily life. I would definitely want to use this book if I was teaching grades 3-5 and even older grades because it has such a good message. It is so important for our kids to learn about racial prejudice and social exclusion so they can learn from past mistakes and do better because they're our future. If I were to include this book in my classroom I would do it when we are talking about race, cultures, etc. because this book covers racial problems in society that are still present in todays society. This book would help make the idea of micro-aggressions, racism in today's society, etc easier to understand for younger students because it's put in a format that is interesting and fun to read and puts it into perspective. 

Overall, I did enjoy reading this book because of the important message it sent the reader. As well as how important it is to be kind to others no matter your differences. Which is something we should always keep in mind especially as future teachers and honestly to be a good person in general.