Less than one week after Jerry Craft’s graphic novel, New Kid, won both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award, he visited Inly for two days of conversation, stories about Jordan Banks (his book’s main character), and lots of autographs and selfies!
Jerry’s Friday schedule included a presentation for our 4th-8th grade students, followed by a deeper discussion with the middle schoolers about some of the issues raised in his realistic graphic novel.
New Kid invites readers into the middle school world of Jordan Banks, an African American boy who goes to a prestigious private school a long bus ride away from his house in Washington Heights. The book addresses class, racism, microaggressions, and the social pressure that middle school kids feel to fit in.
The kids loved learning about the connections between Jerry’s real life and his book. “New Kid was loosely based on my four years at the Fieldston School in New York where I went between ninth through twelfth grade, and partly on my two sons experience at a private school in New Canaan, Connecticut,” he told them. As a kid, he preferred Marvel Comics more than the books he was assigned in school. But most of all, he liked to draw. After graduating from high school, Jerry pursued his love of drawing at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
The kids were especially interested in Jerry’s honesty about the kinds of books available to him as a young reader. He was bothered, he told them, that most books about African American characters seemed to focus exclusively on enslaved people and the Civil Rights Movement. He wanted to read family stories that reflected his reality – books about African American kids that “played sports and ate ice cream.” Eventually, Jerry began self publishing the kinds of books he wished had been available to him, and his work began to attract attention.
It took 13 months, he told the kids, to draw New Kid. When it was time to design the cover, he considered many different colors before designing one that shows Jordan standing in the middle of a half black and half white cover, a reflection of Jordan’s life.
The kids were especially happy to hear Jerry say that New Kid is the first book in a planned trilogy about Jordan and his friends. The second one called Class Act is scheduled to be published in October and will be told from Drew’s perspective.
He ended his presentation by talking about “the phone call” that came at 6:42 last Monday telling him he had won the Newbery. While other graphic novels have received Newbery Honors, New Kid is the first graphic novel to win the gold medal.
After his full day at Inly, Jerry’s next stop was Buttonwood Books and Toys where he was met by a packed house of enthusiastic fans of New Kid. It was a fun gathering that reminded me of lucky we are to have Buttonwood as our neighbor.
The next day, Jerry was the keynote speaker for the Association of Independent Schools of New England Students of Color Conference which was held at Inly this year. The conference theme, “Beyond Boxes,” focused on questions about the result of putting ourselves “inside a box,” and asked the 300 participating students to reflect on how we mark the walls of our boxes. An inspiring talk by Jerry followed by lots of requests for autographs and selfies!
It was a memorable two days, especially for the many students inspired by Jerry – and Jordan!
Sommer Reading 