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. 

El Deafo by Cece Bell

Look at that! A graphic novel with a Newbery! That doesn't happen often, but El Deafo definitely deserved it. 

A great way for even the youngest readers to understand deafness with a lot of humor and relate-able growing pains thrown in. 

Using a personified bunny as a character, Cece Bell tells her autobiography. The bunny works to make it more accessible to kids. If it was super realistic, some of these things would be a bit scary. 

Here, Cece develops meningitis, is taken to a hospital where all kinds of scary tests and treatments are done. 

Despite the treatment, Cece loses her hearing. 

They don't notice this right away until Cece panics when her mother is not in the room. Her mother comes running and despite her calling out for Cece, Cece is running to look for her mother in a different direction because she can't hear her mother calling. 

Hearing tests....

So then she gets hearing aids. Mind you, this was in the 1970's, so there was none of this "No one will even notice them!" nonsense. EVERYone will notice the things in her ears that are attached to the pouch on her front. 

Eventually she can hide her hearing aid under her clothes, but even with the assistance, communication with other people is a minefield of misunderstanding. 

At first, Cece goes to a school for other people with hearing difficulty. Other kids with bionic ears.

Cece being a detective trying to discern what people are saying through non-verbal cues since the audio she hears is so jumbled up. Such a great way to help young kids understand hearing problems. 

Some things that make life difficult....

At her school, she feels like she is still alone in her own little world due to her hearing limitations, but at least everyone else is in the same boat or universe. 

But then they move.... And there is a whole new neighborhood with kids who don't know she has hearing issues. 

A close up of all the parts of the Phonic Ear that she got. 

At her new school, with her Phonic Ear, the teacher wears a little microphone so Cece can hear clearly. This leads to Cece hearing what the teacher is doing in the hallway, bathroom, and teacher's lounge better than anyone else in her class. 

She can even hear her teacher use the bathroom. 

Tada! A superhero is born!

But what to call herself?

One night, while watching television, someone refers to someone else as el deafo. Her brother and sister think she will be upset, but she isn't. Because she just discovered her superhero name, thank you very much. 

The trials of sleepovers when the light goes out. The insecurities and uncertainties of these situations are heightened to an unbearable point. 

But through all of that, she was El Deafo! 

A picture of Cece in her elementary days and her Phonic Ear. 

Inside Outside by Anne-Margot Ramstein & Matthias Aregui

(I do not know what was going on with the lighting on my camera for this one, but it is wonky. So don't think the book has some weird, yellowish color scheme. That's just me!)

I love this book! It is an oversized, wordless look book that gives a lesson on perspective.  

Inside the egg and outside the egg.

Cave

This one took me a minute, because I thought they were the same thing. But then I saw the difference of the cage lines.

A boat on a stormy sea.

I don't know what this style of illustration would be called, but it reminds me of Hergé's illustrations in Tintin. 

Inside and outside a whale. 

This reminds me of Burt Dow, Deep Water Man

Ski lodge

Driving slow through the southwest

The beating heart inside a bungee jumper. 

Isn't it fun? The bright colors, the cartoonish style of illustration, and the perspective shifting pictures are great for looking at again and again. 

Frankencrayon by Michael Hall

The crayon monster lives.... 

My kids enjoyed this nosensical book. From the get-go, the publisher makes sure you know THIS PICTURE BOOK HAS BEEN CANCELED. But somehow, there is a book. So what is up with that? 

So while the pencil wants to just tell everyone to go home, nothing to see here, the crayons want everyone to know what happened. 

So the stage is set....

And suddenly a screaming scribble rents the page! 

Consternation in Crayonland. But that's okay, the cleaning crew will take care of it. 

Except the cleaning crew just makes it BIGGER. So everyone tries to help push it off the page.

But the scribble was out of control!

So everyone had to leave and the book was cancelled. Except.....

...nobody told Frankencrayon who had been told to wait on page 22. 

Frankencrayon gave the scribble a mouth so he could figure out what was going on.

And then we get to the lessons learned--

1. Don't forget to tell everyone when a story has been canceled! 

2. Don't try to unscribble a scribble by scribbling on it.

3. Even a messy scribble can be a lovely  thing.