Class Act

New Kid was a landmark book, the first graphic novel to win the Newbery Award. This follow-up is called a "companion" to that book, because it is not so much a sequel as it is a continuation of the story. It still follows the life of Jordan Banks, now in his second year at Riverdale Academy Day School, a very sheltered private school in the Bronx. Jordan still wants to be an artist and is struggling with his parents about applying to an arts-focused school. But this book also takes a larger focus on his classmate Drew Ellis, one of the the other African-American students at RAD, who has a different set of concerns.

Just like with New Kid, Drew deals with the subtle and overt sorts of racism that pervade life at RAD. He is more athletic and popular than Jordan, though he won't go out for the basketball team because he does not want to be seen as a stereotype. He also has relationship issues, as he gets a girlfriend named Ashley, who tries to impress him with a constant stream of baked goods. She keeps baking him sweet potato pies, which makes him uneasy because it's well intended but also racist. She, and other kids, insist on touching his hair, which really makes him uneasy when they totally ignore his telling them not to. 

Drew also gets singled out to lead a tour of students from their new "sister school" Cardinal De Bard Junior High School in the south Bronx, because he "looks more" like the students there. This makes him pause because it's a place close by Jordan's house, so he would seem to be a better choice, but the teacher organizing this relationship (a white man) thinks that the visitors will be more comfortable with the darker-skinned Drew. 

This theme of exchange runs throughout the book, first in the school visit, but later when Jordan and Drew visit the home of their ultra-rich classmate Liam over the Thanksgiving break. Liam's house is huge, he owns all the video games, and his family insists on eating weird, overly-crunchy flatbread pizza, so the two boys feel like they are in a different world. They also wonder if they could ever truly be friends with someone whose life is so different from their own. Later still, Liam visits Jordan's house, eats a variety of different sorts of food, and gets to hang out with other kids at the local rec center. Although all the boys live in the same borough, it seems like they live in different worlds, though they start to learn to appreciate where the other is from. 

What is impressive about this book is how well it brings out issues of race in relatable and moving ways that are not utterly overt or didactic. Part of this characteristic lays in the artwork, which is colorful and inviting. It also rewards fans of comics and graphic novels, with chapter breaks that reference popular books like This Was Our Pact, Hey Kiddo, and Real Friends as well as other popular media. This book is fun, full of visual puns (especially with local businesses and signage) and witty repartee that make the book feel human and realistic. I particularly like Jordan and Drew's game of calling each other by different, inventive names, a playful way of addressing the fact that many of the teachers at the school constantly confuse them or forget their names. And the supporting cast is very strong, from the frequently misguided teachers at RAD to the pesky Andy, who tries too hard to fit in, to the fantastic Alexandra, a strange and wise girl who definitely walks to the beat of her own drummer. Dispensing wisdom from a hand puppet, she is the Yoda/Silent Bob of this book, and one of my favorites because she appears so comfortable with who she is.

In many ways, this is a book about experiences in middle school, full of big questions and the unease of finding one's way in the world. Certainly, today that also includes navigating systems of institutionalized inequality and racism. And it is not utterly dismissive about what it satirizes, even the consistently tone-deaf attempts by the RAD administration to address racism. It offers no pat answers, but it does put human faces to this very important conversation.

Jerry Craft wrote and drew this book. In addition to New Kid, he has drawn multiple children's books and graphic novels, mostly based on his comic strip Mama's Boyz. He speaks extensively about his work on Class Act in this interview.

All of the reviews I have read of this book have been positive. Esther Keller advised, "Librarians should stock up on as many copies as they can." Kirkus Reviews gave it a starred review that concluded (with a pun even!), "A well-Crafted, visually rich, truth-telling tale for our troubled times that affirms the eternal importance of friends." In another starred review, Publishers Weekly wrote, "Deftly weaving discussions of race, socioeconomics, colorism, and solidarity into an accessible narrative, Craft offers a charming cast journeying through the complicated landscapes of puberty, self-definition, and changing friendships, all while grappling with the tensions of attending an institution that structurally and culturally neglects students of color."

Class Act was published by Quill Tree Books, and they offer a teachers guide and more info about it here.

A big day for graphic novels at the ALA Youth Media Awards

This morning the 2020 winners of the American Library Aassociation Youth Media Awards were announced and there were a couple of historic firsts.

Jerry Craft's graphic novel New Kid, which I reviewed here, won both the Newbery Award and the Coretta Scott King Award. It is the first graphic novel to win the Newbery, and the third graphic novel to win the Coretta Scott King Award, with March Book 1 winning in 2014 and March, Book 3 in 2017.

Another big winner of the day was Jarrett Krosoczka's Hey Kiddo (my review here), which is the first graphic novel to win the Odyssey Award for best audiobook. I have not listened to it as of yet, but I loved the book version and am eager to hear how it got translated to an audio medium.

Both books are excellent, and I am very excited for both authors. Hooray for graphic novels!

Congratulations to all involved!!!

My Favorite Graphic Novels of 2019

Every year, I read a lot of graphic novels. These are the ones published in the past year that have stuck with me the most. In no particular order, and in no set categories, here are my favorites:

Favorite Overall Graphic Novel

The Hard Tomorrow is a tale set in the not-so-far-future where Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is the US president, social media is used for surveillance, and civil rights are under siege. The story of relationships nested within this context is complex, moving, and very relatable for me. The ending of this book literally gave me goosebumps.






Favorite Book by a Hernandez Brother

For once, Jaime out-published Gilbert in terms of books in a calendar year. A 30-year punk rock reunion concert is the setting for Is This How You See Me?, and it pulls off the great trick of flitting from the present to the past to show a broad picture of growing up or changing in terms of people and music scenes. Although it did not give me goosebumps, the final page of this book put a perfect exclamation mark on the whole enterprise.





Favorite Adaptation

Using all sorts of styles and media variations, Anne Frank's Diary is a moving translation that does justice to the book and makes it even more relatable to a modern context. I read a lot of graphic novel adaptations, but this one knocked my socks off.







Favorite Scifi/Horror

Nathan Hale regularly appears in my end-of-year posts for his nonfiction Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series, but this book is a work of fiction. Apocalypse Taco is about some school drama students who get caught up in nightmare scenario involving inter-dimensional beings trying to replicate and replace our world, and it is full of great twists and body horror. Plus, one of the eventual heroes is a graduate student. Hooray for graduate students! (This book would have also won my Best Title category, for the record.)




Favorite Book for Younger Readers

My rating here is based on two criteria: 1. number of times my 4-year-old requested to read it, and 2. just how charming and inventive the whole thing was. Red Panda & Moon Bear is about two superheroic kids who protect their neighborhood from various menaces, from bad dogs to ghosts to ice cream monsters. I loved seeing how they solved their problems with ingenuity and empathy. We loved this book in my house!




Favorite Nonfiction Book

Box Brown is a regular in my end-of-year lists as well, but this book surprised me with just how much it taught me. Cannabis is a history of the contentious plant, showing the science behind how it works, its international roots, and how a long-term process of racism and misinformation has colored how we view it today. It is an excellent cultural history.






Favorite Scifi

Last Pick: Born to Run is two things: an gripping scifi story about an alien invasion of Earth and what people who are underestimated can accomplish. This look at what are typically considered disabilities or disablement made for great drama to accompany strong characterization and great, gruesome monster designs.






Favorite Young Adult Book

The insights into an African-American young man and the experiences he has at a private school make New Kid a unique and important book. Not only does it explore the social dimensions of adolescence, it also raises timely questions about social justice and equity in a way that involves multiple shareholders. Additionally, I very much enjoyed getting to know Jordan Banks, the main character, as he learns the lay of land while trying to develop his artistic skills. It features a great message but with a sense of both humor and humanity.




Favorite Memoir

Lucy Knisley is another regular in my end-of-year lists, and in Kid Gloves she offers multiple features in one book. It is a memoir about her own process of getting pregnant, pregnancy, and giving birth. It also contains a bunch of historical sections about how those three life processes have been viewed and evolved over time and across cultures. It also contains a good deal of graphic medicine about specific conditions and treatments. All of these features combine to give the reader much to learn about, chew over, and also be entertained and moved by. This is an excellent book for anyone who is a parent or who would like to be one.



OK, that's my list. Happy New Year!

New Kid

New Kid was recommended to me by fellow graphic novel aficionado Zach Barnes, and I am glad he turned me onto it. It is a rare book, in its view of a scholarship student going to a private school. Riverdale Academy Day School is a launching pad for success, and Jordan Banks's parents decide it is the best way for him to go. He's African-American, which puts in him in the minority at that new school, and he's really unsure if he belongs for many reasons. First, he wants to be an artist, and he feels that art school might be a better path for him. Second, he's from a family with modest means, and most of the students at RADS are super-rich patricians, some of whom have legacies there.

What really stood out to me about this book was how it depicted Jordan's various plights with humor, heart, and nuance. His parents want what is best for him, although they also have their disagreements about this situation. Jordan has to navigate a new space while dealing with racial and class issues. People often do not speak to him, and when they do they call him by the wrong name. Furthermore, he has to make new friends while also maintaining his relationships at home and making sense of both worlds. In part this struggle is embodied by the subtle transformations he makes each day as his dress and demeanor change over the course of the long bus ride to school. He has to assume several identities and navigate multiple realities, which this book shows in a way that drives home what many young people have to do in order to get by on a daily basis.

The book is laid out in multiple chapters, episodes that follow him across the school year. There are multiple plot threads, and overall I'd say the narrative is more observational than dramatic. But those observations are sharp, astute, and often heartfelt. I also very much enjoyed the sequences where we get to see Jordan's artwork and its humorous commentary on his life in and out of school. All of the characters are interesting and well portrayed as individuals who I enjoyed getting to know the over the course of the book, and I'd love to have another opportunity to revisit them in a sequel. I feel that this book has much to offer as food for thought and also as a keen and emotional look at teen life. It is excellent for reading and re-reading, and I cannot recommend it enough.

Jerry Craft wrote and drew this book. He has drawn multiple children's books and graphic novels in the past, and he is known for his work on Mama's Boyz, both as a comic strip and in four books. This article sheds light on his work on New Kid, as does this interview.

Every review I have read about this book has been glowing. Elizabeth Bird summed up, "More than just the sum of its parts, Craft has created a book with guts, that kids will want to read multiple times. Funny, whip smart stuff." Victoria Jamieson called it "tender and tough, funny and heartbreaking." Kirkus Reviews gave it a starred review that concluded, "An engrossing, humorous, and vitally important graphic novel that should be required reading in every middle school in America." Publishers Weekly also gave it a starred review that ended, "This engaging story offers an authentic secondary cast and captures the high jinks of middle schoolers and the tensions that come with being a person of color in a traditionally white space."

New Kid was published by HarperCollins, and they offer an audio excerpt, teacher guide, and more info here.