2020 Newbery winner, New Kid by Jerry Craft, is a graphic novel that follows 7th grader Jordan Banks to his new private school. He’s not thrilled about being there: he’d rather be at an art school, and he’d rather not be one of the only scholarship kids, and he’d rather not be one of the only kids of color at his new middle school. He feels out of place, both now with his neighborhood friends and with his classmates. He finds his way slowly, making friends and standing up for himself, and learning to navigate the terrain.
What I liked. I don’t read a lot of graphic novels, so I really enjoyed this opportunity to read one and experience how dynamic the medium is at expressing so many things through images and text. I think that being able to show skin tone without having to overtly identify each character’s skin tone to the audience created bigger and more complex communities that Jordan was in and gave the reader a different experience. Hopefully, it is one in which you could start to see your own world in a different way afterwards.
What was interesting: I think one of the interesting parts of Newberies that are written to be contemporary is to track the use of tween and young teen technology use. Early Newberies of course had plenty of families that didn’t have a phone at all (like Thimble Summer-1939). Later Newberies had teens have one family phone, and getting a possible love interest’s number is important, but it wouldn’t be a private experience to talk on the family phone (like It’s Like This, Cat -1964). The most recent Newberies had kids using social media on their phones (like Merci Suárez Changes Gears – 2019). In New Kid, Jordan plays online video games with his friends talking to them on head phones while they play. Of course when it’s a contemporary novel, there is no explanation of this technology. No one explains to the reader that it’s a game played on the internet, in real time, while people talk to each other. If it were a historical novel, the author might explain how this worked and how it was new, but with a novel that’s supposed to be current, no explanation of technology is given.
What were some limitations. This isn’t really a limitation as much as a comment that I wanted the author to have Jordan interact more with his dad about his dad’s feelings about Jordan being at the new school and having a life outside of the neighborhood, especially with some very affluent friends. We get a little glimpse of it here and there, but I wanted to know more, maybe because I’m getting closer to the age of the parents in the book and am interested in their experience! Maybe kids are fine with the amount of parent angst, and want the focus to be on Jordan.
Similarity to other Newbery winners. In many ways New Kid is unique for a Newbery in its graphic novel format — a graphic novel– and its subject–directly tackling contemporary race issues. It’s been rightly celebrated as innovative and important. As we near the Newbery centennial, it has been held up in direct contrast to early 1920s Newberies like The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle that are overtly racist. However, that simplified narrative of progress can skip over a more complex history of early diverse Newbery protagonists. Starting in the late 1920s, there have been main Newbery characters from India (Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon -1928) Native American Tribes (Waterless Mountain -1932), China (Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze -1933), Polynesia (Call It Courage -1941), and South America (Secret of the Andes -1953). Beginning in the 1950s, there have been ten other Newberies with African American protagonists (or very important secondary characters who are directly dealing with communities of predominantly Africans or African Americans) Amos Fortune, Free Man -1951, Sounder -1970, The Slave Dancer -1974, M. C. Higgins, the Great – 1975, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry -1977, Maniac Magee -1991, Holes -1999, Bud, Not Buddy – 2000, and The Crossover – 2015, and Last Stop on Market Street – 2016. I don’t want to paint too rosy of a picture about diversity in the Newberies over the last hundred years; I think a careful study of many of those books with diverse protagonists, especially the ones before 1975, would rightly point out a lot of problems. And in the end, I have to agree that the contrasts between The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle of 1922 and New Kid of 2020 are striking.
What it teaches me as a writer. I think one thing that Jerry Craft does in this book is let characters be annoying and complex and themselves for a long time before providing some growth or explanation. Alexandra, the puppet girl, is super annoying, but ultimately is one of the sweeter storylines as Jordan gets her to open up to why she is always wearing a puppet on her hand and using it to talk to people. I think that ability to let the reader sit with the tension for a long time really lets the reader experience the complex relationships in an effective way.
Have you read New Kid? What are your favorite graphic novel?
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