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Class Act

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By Jerry Craft
New York, NY: Quill Tree Books, 2020. Graphic novel.

Drew Ellis is not quite sure how he fits in at the prestigious Riverdale Academy Day school. One of a handful of Black students at the school, he is already bound to stand out and he is always aware that he needs to work "twice as hard to go half as far" as his classmates -- including one of his closest friends the white, wealthy Liam. As the school year goes on, Drew, Liam and their friend Jordan, a light-skinned Black boy, make sense of their changing worlds as they face very different struggles at school and at home -- with each boy's challenges treated with humanity and empathy.

Readers who enjoyed Jerry Craft's landmark New Kid (the first graphic novel to win a Newbery award) will be pleased to return to the kids of the Riverdale Academy Day school in this companion novel. As he did with New Kid, Craft is able to give us and honest and realistic look at the world of three very different boys and he handles heavy topics ripe with social commentary while still composing a humorous and engaging graphic novel -- chapter headings illustrated to parody popular graphic novel covers is one of my favorite aspects. Readers will probably want to read New Kid before diving into this sequel, but because the story focuses on Drew, Liam, and Jordan this time around, reading the first book is not essential.
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