New Kid
Jerry Craft
<span>Jordan is anxious about starting seventh grade at an upscale private school where he is one of only a few kids of color. Those concerns are indeed merited, as Jordan confronts both covert and overt racism on a daily basis, casual assumptions about Black students’ families and financial status, Black students being mistaken for one another, well-intentioned teachers awkwardly stumbling over language, and competition over skin tones among the Black students themselves. Yet it’s clear that everyone has a burden to bear, from the weird girl to the blond boy who lives in a mansion, and, indeed, Jordan only learns to navigate his new world by not falling back on his own assumptions.</span>