School Trip

he Riverdale Academy Day School crew is back and ready for an adventure to the City of Lights.

This newest installment in Craft’s groundbreaking middle-grade graphic novel series finds eighth grade African American boy Jordan facing a milestone all too familiar to many teenagers: the arrival of a school admissions letter. Attending art school is Jordan’s dream come true, but getting one’s heart’s desire comes with a fresh set of worries. Going to a different school means leaving his best friends behind and becoming the new kid once more; worst of all, he only has a few weeks to make up his mind about whether to accept the offer. A school trip to Paris, something that is both exciting and nerve-wracking, stands as a metaphor for show more the life changes that Jordan is facing, and his friends are on hand to help him make the most of things. At the heart of Craft’s series are the three-dimensional relationships forged among the diverse cast of characters in Jordan’s orbit, and this novel fully delights on that score. From Jordan’s dad, who insists on the family’s watching Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!) on VHS; to Andy, his obtuse nemesis who secretly longs for acceptance; and Ramon, the hardworking Nicaraguan classmate for whom this is the trip of a lifetime, readers will love this European escapade with characters who reflect the richness and multiculturalism of modern America.

Another triumph of storytelling filled with heart and wonder. (Graphic fiction. 10-14)

-Kirkus Review show less

I laughed! I (almost) cried! I love the way the New Kid middle grade fiction series wraps up with this book. (I mean, it's an informed guess on my part that this is the series finis.)

Once again, this author shows the genius of good graphic novels—how the art speaks just as much as the words do. The imagery here is on point, and the Easter eggs are fun to spot, like in movies.

Dealing with adolescence, travel, family, friendships, race, class, and more, this novel is a wonderful mix of the hilarious, the delightful, the insightful, and the parts that break your heart a little or hit you in the gut. (Honestly, some of the clever Easter eggs are pretty gut-punchy too.)

I so identify with the fact that this author makes the kinds of books show more he wishes he once had and didn't. That's one of the reasons why I became an author.

I almost hated for this novel (and series?) to end, but hey. What a great way to end it! show less

Loved this one -- it's got all the freshness that New Kid brought to storytelling, and it centers both a physical and emotional journey. I love the mischief, the real talk, the humor, and the hopefulness -- feels like it offers real solutions to navigating social awkwardness and racism. It also just embraces the beauty and insight that travel can bring. Hard to put down.

The middle schoolers of Riverdale Academy School get an amazing opportunity to travel in small groups, with many of the tweens taking off for Paris, France. There they notice cultural differences, not only between themselves and the French people but also among themselves.

This third book in the New Kid series is another hit. As with the previous titles, it balances difficult topics (such as bullying, racism, and more) with humor (such as zingy one-liners, visual gags, and more) so that it always manages to stay lighthearted while providing positive messages about doing the right thing, being a true friend, learning to cross cultural boundaries correctly, and so on.

Jerry Craft continues to make a lot of great points about racism and microaggressions with his junior high characters, but this meandering class trip to Paris is overstuffed with too many characters taking too many digressions at too slow a pace. A middle school graphic novel usually take me thirty or sixty minutes to read, but School Trip took me a full two hours, making me wonder how many kids will actually get through the whole thing.

My main goal for reading this book was seeing the awful teacher, Timothy Roche, get some sort of comeuppance for his racist behavior in the first two books. But suddenly, that behavior disappears with no demonstration of his self-awareness of the problem or signs of personal growth regarding it. So when show more he finally reaps his bad karma, it's just for being a stupid person in general instead of following through on the previous storyline.

The full weight of coming to terms with past bad behavior instead falls on Andy Peterson, a racist classmate who bullies through teasing and bad jokes. His telling off is much deserved and closer to what I wanted to see for Roche. Unfortunately, the power of this arc is diluted by all the other stuff going on around it, making me wish it had been the center of the graphic novel instead a B-storyline in a book with storylines going most of the way down the alphabet.

As an often negative reviewer, I also have to take umbrage with the whole "thumbs-downer" concept Craft promotes throughout the book, from dedication to closing pages. I get wanting to push back against negativity, especially with all the real-life consequences Craft has felt with his books being challenged in schools and libraries, but the idea seems half-baked at best. It starts out as, if you have nothing nice to say then don't say anything, but then gets muddled as a character employs the thumbs down in the end to express disapproval of bad behavior. So thumbs down is bad when used against things Craft likes, but good when used against things Craft doesn't like? That sounds less like a philosophy than how everyone on social media already behaves. Getting a thumbs down sucks, but stifling their use or choosing who gets to use them goes against the very freedom of expression Craft otherwise seems to promote.

Still, despite my negativity, Craft and I probably agree on more things than not, and I do appreciate what he is trying to accomplish with this series even if this entry left me bored and frustrated. show less

Read over a few sessions, over the course of a long afternoon. Lots to think about. A little more serious than the first two. Really gets inside the kids' heads more, even Ashley and Samira, for example. Andy and Drew have an, erm, discussion.

Love the details in the art., for example:

Ainara's Banned Book Barn at the mall (America) has a poster that they're going to host Jerry Craft. And a sale for "Buy one Burn one."

And the insights that the kids share (which are *not* implausible for them to come up with), for example Alexandra says: "The more time we spend with people who aren't like us, the more we learn that they really are like us.... And if they're not, that's OK! Maybe we might like them anyway."

Jordan is concerned about his show more friends from his home neighborhood: "... how do you give someone a dream when they don't even know that they're allowed to dream?"

Of course they're still kids. Jordan also says "Being a teenager is a really hard job. We should get paid." (Sorry, kiddo, but most of you actually are getting too much spending money already. Just ask the manufacturers and creators of the things you spend money on.)

So, yeah, excellent trilogy. For all of us. show less

In this book, Jordan goes international (Paris, France!) and contemplates the person he’s becoming, especially with a school change on the horizon. With the Paris setting, the cultural differences between France and America are briefly mentioned as well.

I really think the audience for this book is for readers who do not experience or are unaware of racial microaggressions. In addition, there are classist and religious microaggressions in this book. These things are stated very obviously and blatantly, but, if this inspires empathy and understanding, that's great.

The artwork can be stiff at times, but Jordan’s doodles have a lot of personality and charm. I looked forward to his segments. I also enjoyed the subplot with Ashley and show more Alexandra. I thought it was going to veer into showing that some kids prefer to be alone and it’s okay, but it went another direction.

Overall, some of the jokes were corny or a bit too on the nose, but this still will be an engaging read for kids. It starts off a bit slow, but I liked the earnest way it tried to address issues.

SN: what librarian would think graphic novels aren't real books???

3.5 show less