Class Act: A Graphic Novel - Softcover

Craft, Jerry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062885502 ISBN 13: 9780062885500

Publisher: Quill Tree Books, 2020

Synopsis

New York
Times bestselling author Jerry Craft returns with a companion book
to New Kid, winner of the 2020 Newbery Medal, the Coretta
Scott King Author Award, and the Kirkus Prize. This time, it’s Jordan’s friend
Drew who takes center stage in another laugh-out-loud funny, powerful, and
important story about being one of the few kids of color in a prestigious
private school.

Eighth
grader Drew Ellis is no stranger to the saying “You have to work twice as hard
to be just as good.” His grandmother has reminded him his entire life. But what
if he works ten times as hard and still isn’t afforded the
same opportunities that his privileged classmates at the Riverdale Academy Day School take for granted?

To make matters worse, Drew begins to feel as if his good
friend Liam might be one of those privileged kids. He wants to pretend like
everything is fine, but it's hard not to withdraw, and even their mutual friend
Jordan doesn't know how to keep the group together.

As the
pressures mount, will Drew find a way to bridge the divide so he and his
friends can truly accept each other? And most important, will he finally be
able to accept himself?

New Kid, the first graphic novel to win the Newbery Medal, is now joined by Jerry Craft's powerful Class Act.

About this title

About the Author

Jerry Craft is the author-illustrator of #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novels New Kid and its companion book, Class Act. New Kid was the first book in history to win the Newbery Medal, the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature. In his latest book, School Trip, Jerry hopes to share his love of travel in order to inspire kids and their families to see the world and embrace new cultures. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts and now lives in Florida. 

Reviews

Gr 4-8-Picking up where New Kid left off, this sequel finds Jordan starting another riotous, discomfiting year at Riverdale Academy Day School and pondering his future. For now, he has time to burn alongside best friends Drew and Liam. An initial sequence following the three boys' daily commutes encapsulates conflicts to come. Lighter-skinned Black, middle-class Jordan eats breakfast with his loving parents before his father drives him to school from Manhattan. Drew, who is also Black yet darker-skinned and working-class and whose doting grandmother is already at work when he leaves for school, catches two buses from Co-op City. Live-in staff attend to white, wealthy Liam while his parents, entrenched in cold war at opposite ends of the table, ignore their three children. Craft hereafter toggles among these points of view but focuses on Drew, who must work "twice as hard to go half as far." Once again, the author/illustrator's full-color panels captivate, drawing on comics' capacity for visual metaphor and hyperbole to deliver heavy payloads. He relies on Jordan's cartoons-rendered in simple, black-and-white linework-to pause the narrative and deliver incisive, bite-size observations on race, socioeconomic status, burgeoning individuality, and pubescent perils. (Lest the subject matter seem overwhelming, be it known that the book is hilarious-see, for instance, the interstitial title pages parodying popular graphic novel covers.) In time, the growing boys-unlike their school, which has no clue how to address institutional inequities and simmering tensions-initiate the painful but necessary work required to truly see and support one another. VERDICT Lightning strikes twice as Craft again produces a funny and appealing yet sensitive and nuanced middle grade tale of inequity and microaggressions.-Steven Thompson, Bound Brook Memorial P.L., NJα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Edition details

• Publisher: Quill Tree Books
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062885502
• ISBN 13: 9780062885500
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Craft Jerry
• Number of pages: 256