New Kid: A Story About Fitting In, School Diversity, and Friendship

New Kid is a graphic novel about Jordan Banks, a seventh grader who loves drawing cartoons about his life. His parents enroll him in Riverdale Academy Day School, a prestigious private school known for academics, rather than the art school he dreamed of attending. Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his grade. As Jordan travels daily from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale school, he struggles to fit in. He finds himself caught between two worlds—his new school environment and his neighborhood friends—and questions whether he can navigate his new school culture while staying true to himself. The book won the Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature. It is a selection of the Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List and is recommended for middle grade and tween readers, including for summer reading.