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One Final Reflection

             One aspect of Craft’s New Kid that struck me was the balance he achieved between capturing both young and adult audiences. Being a graphic novel, New Kid appeals to a younger generation, as the pictures are no different than the comic books they read to learn more about their favorite superheroes. The adults are able to pick up on the real superhero, however, in the main character of the story, Jordan Banks, a twelve-year-old kid that has to overcome blatant forms of microaggression and racism. The graphics in the novel help to deliver a more serious message to the adults while also helping the children through a book that puts real issues at the forefront. This is the brilliance of Craft’s work.             In terms of what I found most surprising this semester through all of our discussions, it would have to be the sheer amount of different types of humor there are. Between my friends and I, the main forms of humor used are dark humor and sarcasm, and I believe that
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Who's the New Kid in the Zoom

 Yesterday I found out that Jayden likes disco music. Specifically those tunes he reminisces playing during family cookouts. In honor of Luther Vandross, Google had paid homage to him on their homepage, including a tune that Jayden recognized. It was really touching to bond over that random that experience. In fact, a kid who likes football, anime, and gaming would hardly be a consumer, I would think, of disco music. However, it was an entirely new side of Jayden I had witnessed yesterday. Though I've still yet to see his face, it was as if I had gotten another glimpse into his life.  What New Kid does so well, is infiltrate the mind and psyche of a child adjusting. Not only to new surroundings, but also to new people. Jayden has had to adapt to new "surroundings" as far as schooling goes, and a slew of new people he's never officially met. Admittedly, Jayden is socially awkward, and lacking all of those interpersonal senses that Zoom ignores it becomes very difficult
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Kraft's take on race and identity

  I had never read a comic book before, I never had the desire and they never really appealed to me. I did not know what to expect when I began  New Kid  by Jerry Craft. However, it reminded me of a more serious, deeper, and meaningful version of  Diary of the Wimpy Kid.  It reminded me of something my Bridges Student from Service Learning would like. She often shows me her drawings and loves to distract me by showing me artistic skills. She is also currently entering school as a new kid. Due to COVID-19, her in-person learning has just begun, she is just starting to be in person as a new middle schooler. It is April and she is currently learning where every classroom, cafeteria table, and locker is as a 6th grader. When I asked her if she ever got lost she held up the most detailed map, 6 pages long, a map for every class period, for every new classroom -- similar to Jordan. This text,  New Kid , discussed race in a very clever and unique way. The role of race is often alluded to, fo
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Race and Identity in "New Kid"

  Jerry Kraft uses lighthearted humor to describe racial issues and identity in his comic book “New Kid.” It follows the “new kid” Jordan as he enters and adjusts to a school in which the majority of the people are different from him; they are rich and white. One thing about this book that is different than the other ones we have read, is that it is written (or drawn) in a graphic novel/cartoon style. Because of this, the drawings themselves are funny rather than the text.               In the very beginning of the book, one part that made me laugh was when the kids called Maury an Oreo because he was “black on the outside and white on the inside.” To accompany this text, the drawing showed Maury’s body with his head in the shape of a sad-looking Oreo. The book deals with a lot of racial profiling and pointing out stereotypes as well. In Maury’s case, even though (arguably) there is no such thing as “black” and “white” activities and status’, Maury was said to be “white on the inside
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Experiencing an unfamiliar perspective in New Kid

 Jerry Craft's New Kid  expertly shares the experience of a black boy entering a predominately white school as a new student in a new area. Through graphic illustration, readers feel as if they are inside the head of Jordan, which is a perspective that I have never had as a white person. While I could never understand Jordan's position in life, I feel that Craft's humor provides insight into how Jordan experiences this major transition, where he is challenged by microaggressions and racist assumptions. There is a layer of personality and accessibility, which is powerful considering the audience of this book is kids age 8-12.  Each chapter correlates with a pop culture reference, which adds a sphere of humor and relatability. For example, chapter four is titled Upper Upper West Side Story as a play on the classic musical, West Side Story, where individuals from two different ethnicities are kept apart. Craft's use of allusion, in this instance, demonstrates Jordan's
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Integrating into a "New World"

 Jerry Craft's brilliantly witty and eye-opening novel places us in Jordan's shoes as the new kid. We learn he's not only the new kid at Rad, but the new kid in this white-washed student body. Jordan makes sense of his world--he gains control--through illustration. For example, in the black-and-white sketches with bannered titles he includes throughout the novel. The most important aspect of this novel, however, is learning about this new world through Jordan's eyes. His thoughtful illustrations and recounts of his experience show the readers the microaggressions and discrimination the black community faces from the modern white community. Through his personal experiences, the readers understand what it is like for a person of color to integrate into a predominately white world.  The most prominent obstacle Jordan faces in this novel is microaggressions, and they never seem to die down. For example, Andy and Ms. Rawle call Jordan and Drew by the wrong names. This sugges
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Final Reflection

       The graphic novel,   New Kid  used humor in insightful ways. Specifically, the pages labeled “Jordan’s tips for …” Craft uses these pages where Jordan is inserting his own voice and writing in a very humorous way. The pages are giving tips to simple everyday things such as, “Jordan’s tips for taking the bus.” The complexity and inner though process to each of these is humorous, it takes simple notions and makes them less simple in a humorous light, showing that there are complexities even in life’s simplicities. In “A Guide to Cafeteria Hierarchy” specifically, it is something the reader can relate to because everyone has had that high school experience of the cafeteria and its implied assign seating based on popularity. However, instead of explaining and drawing the cafeteria with humans, Craft (Jordan) uses animals, “Regular seniors (Wolves) get the window seats… The Upper-Class Black Table (Rhinos)… Juniors (Foxes) get their own section in the middle… Sophomores (Owls) sit cl
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