New Kid by Jerry Craft

 

Title: New Kid 

Genre: Realistic Fiction, Graphic Novel 

Author and Illustrator: Jerry Craft 

Major Awards: Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Award

Age group: Ages 8-12

 

Summary: 

    This graphic novel was about seventh grader, Jordan Banks. He is one of the very few students of color in a prestigious private school, Riverdale Academy Day School. Just like the title of the novel, Jordan struggles being the new kid at his school and fitting in with his new school’s culture. Most of the students look different than him and come from very wealthy families. After many struggles with students and a teacher, Jordan decides to give RAD a second chance for the next year. At the end of the novel, Jordan finds a new place in his school and make lots of new friends. Attending this new prestigious school didn’t change who he was but instead he became a new confident kid. 

Evaluation:

    Appropriate grade levels would be 3^rd to 7^th grade. This was the very first time I ever read a graphic novel, and even though it was a little confusing to read in the beginning, I loved it. The graphics were very detailed and even though they were just doodles, the details in them were very impressive. The graphics alone told the story of the book and it just completely drew me into the story. 

    If I was teaching middle school grade levels, I would definitely use this book in my instruction. Not only because of the fun graphics but also because of the lesson of the book. I could use this book for a book comprehension lesson plan, where we could talk about the different characters, themes of the book, plot, and what did they learned from this book. I also think it would be fun to use the novel as a guide to create their own graphic novel strip. We could read a story and create a graphic strip to show what happened in the story they read. With this activity, they are creating a graphic strip but also showing reading comprehension.