New Kid by Jerry Craft

From Goodreads,

"A 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?"

Goodreads - New Kid

Awards and Nominations:

• Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature (2019)
• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Middle Grade & Children's (2019)
• Newbery Medal (2020)
• Coretta Scott King Award for Author (2020)

I am still slowly working my way through the Newbery Award Winners.  In January I start looking for the award winners for all the book lists I'm reading.  When I saw that New Kid was the Newbery Medal recipient for 2020 I was extremely excited because I had this book in my classroom library.  After a quick search through students who had books checked out, I was able to find who had the book.  As soon as they turned it in I quickly snatched it up and took it home to read.  

New Kid follows Jordan Banks as he starts at a new private school, even though he wants to go to art school.  On the first day, Jordan quickly realizes that there aren't many kids there who are of color like him.  He struggles to fit in but soon makes a couple friends.  He just has to figure out how to meld the worlds together while still being himself. 

This book is the first time a graphic novel has ever received the Newbery Award.  That being said, this book left a lot to be desired.  I'm not a huge fan of graphic novels.  If they follow a very clear, cut format like El Deafo then I enjoy it.  When it follows more of a comic book style I struggle.  This book, unfortunately, had the comic book feel, and I struggled with it.  Some frames didn't follow the order that I thought they should and it was very frustrating.  I like the frames to be orderly and going from left to right, but this book the frames had no specific organization.  The entire book felt disorganized and left me feeling unsettled. 

I felt like this book didn't have a strong storyline in it.  I felt like this book was trying to tackle ALL the issues that young African American kids deal with.  The book covers poverty, racism, friendship, family, bullying, self-expression, and exclusion.  I wish it would have picked a couple topics and had a deeper story than what we were given.  There was a huge opportunity to make a big and bold statement, but honestly, the book fell flat for me because it was packed with so much.  

This book just didn't sit right with me.  It was an extreme let down.  There were too many things trying to happen in this book and I don't feel any of them were fully covered or delved into deep enough.  It is super cool that this is the first graphic novel to win the Newbery Award.  I have to give this 2 stars.  Students who love graphic novels will enjoy this as it is a fairly quick read.