New Kid by Jerry Craft

This awesome graphic novel highlights what it is like to be the new kid in a school where you don't truly feel you belong with people who don't really get you. 

Jordan Banks is not quite sure about life. 

This is how I feel every single day of my life, like I'm falling without a parachute.

His mom and dad have decided that Jordan needs to go to a better school. His mother is a little in love with this new school. Jordan just wants to draw. 

Every couple pages, Jordan's illustrations show up, which is great!

The first day of school, Jordan is picked up by another father taking his son to school. Jordan impresses him with his super strong handshake and climbs in next to a sleeping schoolmate. 

Not the best way to start a new school.

But, Liam, the sleeping schoolmate wakes up enough to give Jordan a tour. The school is just as impressive and beautiful as his mother said it would be. 

Most of the kids are white, but then, Jordan spies Maury, another kid who looks like him. 

And then Drew walks in, both of them standing out to each other due to their non-whiteness. 

Eventually, Liam, Drew, and Jordan become a squad. 

How everyone feels in a new cafeteria. Just as he is making friends through his art, the sophomores let them know they sat at the wrong table. 

I love this cafeteria hierarchy! 

The transformation from the school neighboorhood back to his own turf. 

Trying to maintain old friendships while going to different schools....

Going over to Liam's house (mansion) is an education in itself. 

Striking up a friendship with Alexandra, who wears a puppet on her hand all the time. 

Drew runs afoul of one of the teachers, who is always calling him the name of a different black kid. This teacher is calling him out for something everyone else does all the time. 

Jordan isn't too sure about this. He understands where Drew is coming from, but... to tell a teacher they were wrong!! 

Jordan's perception of books for African American kids. I honestly think this is slowly but surely changing for the better. 

Drew finally helps the teacher understand the difference between him and DeAndre. 

Mrs. R is just not a favorite. She reads Jordan's private journal and finds out some unpleasant things about herself. 

At the end of the year, things are pretty good. 

It wasn't an easy year, but Jordan found his people and made peace with this new school. 

Even his art gets accepted. As the cover of the year book. 

This is a great book discussing typical middle school things, race, and being true to yourself while letting yourself grasp a new opportunity. 

Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina

So this just won the Newbery. WOAH. 

For once, I have actually read both the winner of the Newbery and the winner of the Caldecott. To be honest, I was quite surprised that Hello, Lighthouse won. I was expecting Dreamers or Drawn together. But they didn't even get honors. Which just goes to show you how much I know about judging the Caldecott. But I LOVE Hello, Lighthouse and I LOVE Merci Suárez. And Dreamers and Drawn Together both won in different categories, so they will not be medal-less. 

All is well in my world. 

So Merci. Merci is a great heroine. There is a time and place for the weak main character that finds their strength after a series of plot points, but in a refreshing difference, Merci is strong from the beginning. That doesn't mean she always gets the better of the mean, popular girl who decides to hate Merci for no real reason, but it means she doesn't cower in a corner for three quarters of the book.  

Merci's strength is partly due to being a scholarship student at a private school in Florida. Living next door to her boisterous extended Hispanic family, helping out with her father's painting company, and babysitting her little cousin is in stark contrast to her classmate's luxurious lives. Being different can either make you bitter and fearful or independent minded and strong. Fortunately for us, Merci chose the latter option. Being different is always there as a part of her, but she is not ashamed of her life necessarily. She adores soccer and loves her extended family and brilliant brother. Her life has a rhythm that makes sense to her and gives her life parameters. 

Merci's rhythmic life is interrupted when her beloved grandfather starts acting differently and the popular girl at school decides to make Merci's life miserable because Merci is a Sunshine Buddy to the new, cute guy. 

As Merci deals with meanness at school, disappointment in soccer, and the change in her home life, she begins to resent all this upheaval in her life. But Merci soon finds herself up to the challenge. Because what else can you do when life changes but improvise right along with it?

I love Merci and her love for her family and her confusion about growing up. Her situations and worries and concerns will be as recognizable and relatable to middle graders as her eventual triumph.

Life is never perfect, but Merci finds a way to make it okay.  

Patina by Jason Reynolds

I have a giant reading crush on Jason Reynolds. Actually, I don't even know that much about him. I just love his books. 

Last year, I read his Brave Like You and adored it. 

Last week I read Patina and loved it as well. Reynolds writes in an honest, authentic way about African-American childhood. I think we sometimes associate serious, somber themes with African-American narratives. Maybe because books with those narratives have been very important in changing how we talk about race to young people. They deserve to be important, but at the same time, I think we stereotype again, stripping African-American characters of their nuances and variation, if we always assume they have the same life story. 

Reynolds in no way ignores the struggles that African-American children face, but he makes it clear that their race is only one aspect of their personality. And while it is always there, in the background, race isn't the main event in his books. 

I really hope I don't sound like I am diminishing those serious, necessary books about racial experiences, because there are some seriously amazing books out there about that. However, I love books that also give students from diverse backgrounds, common ground. Rather than always seeing other, they can make connections to these characters that might help them to understand those serious, important books a little more. 

I hope that makes sense. 

Anyway, back to Patina. Patina is a middle schooler, at a prestigious, predominantly white, prep school. She had a difficult childhood, but is now living with her uncle and aunt in a stable environment. She has also just joined an elite running team (the same one Ghost is on). Navigating through middle school, as well as trying to survive being the "new" teammate, Patina also struggles with making sure her younger sister is taken care of and her aunt and uncle have all the help they need in the house. See, just because you are a kid, doesn't mean you aren't aware of all the responsibilities around you. Even though she has lived with her aunt and uncle for years, Patina still feels that she needs to do everything she can to make it easier on them, despite efforts by her aunt and uncle to help her relax and be a kid. It takes a serious event to help Patina see that she has a good support network on her side. She doesn't actually have to hold it all together herself. 

That actually sounds serious and hardship filled. But it didn't feel like that. It felt funny, smart, and hopeful. I couldn't help loving Patina and identifying with her sense of responsibility. And ultimately, her incredible, loving support system! 

You will love it. You just will.