New Kid – Jerry Craft

New Kid by Jerry Craft

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


New Kid is an incredibly accessible graphic novel that introduces us to seventh-grader Jordan and his life as the new kid in a new school. As a black kid, he experiences daily micro aggressions in his new school. He watches other kids be stereotyped and labeled. Teachers who can’t take the time to remember a student’s name. Students who make racist jokes about another student’s culture that isn’t even where they’re from. It’s like a crash course in racism, micro aggressions, and all the little things people may not have realized that they do and have hurt people over.

You get to know Jordan, he’s a good kid and he loves to draw. Like many other kids, he doesn’t know his place in the world and so you get to experience a lot through his eyes. It’s a really approachable way to teach people without teaching people – if that makes sense. It’s a graphic novel with an important theme and lessons throughout. It’s a story that I would want to share with many people because I feel that anyone can read it and understand – that teacher was uncalled for, that boy should not have said those things, Jordan’s emotions were completely valid.

It’s a quick read, but I would highly recommend it and I would love to see where Jerry Craft takes Jordan’s story next.

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