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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSNew Kid is a graphic novel about Jordan Banks, a twelve-year-old from Washington Heights who would rather draw in his sketchbook than do almost anything else. Instead of sending him to the art school he's been begging for, his parents enroll him at Riverdale Academy Day School, a mostly white private school forty minutes away, where he ends up one of only a few kids of color in his whole grade. Between the long bus commute, teachers who keep mixing up his name with the other Black kid in his class, and a new friend named Liam whose life looks nothing like his own, Jordan has to figure out how to stay himself while everyone around him seems to have an opinion about who he should be. As the book puts it, "middle school is hard enough without being the new kid." Told partly through the comics Jordan draws about his own life, this is a funny, honest story about starting over somewhere you don't quite belong, at least not yet.
Free Battle of the Books questions for New Kid
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about New Kid. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a classmate ask a boy, "And what are you, anyway"?
✓ Answer
New Kid by Jerry Craft
Andy fires the question at Jordan within a minute of meeting him, then waves it off and starts bragging about football. Jordan can only answer with a confused huh, and the moment shows him exactly what kind of year he is in for.
- First half
In what book does a grandmother warn a boy about being a "fly in the buttermilk"?
✓ Answer
New Kid by Jerry Craft
Drew tells Jordan he never says anything to his grandmother about how lonely school feels, because her generation does not complain. Her advice is that being successful means getting used to standing out, and Jordan has never heard the expression before.
- First half
In what book does a boy imagine chewing off his own leg to escape a conversation?
✓ Answer
New Kid by Jerry Craft
Jordan realizes with horror that his parents praised him to Alexandra's parents, not Alex's, because her family calls her Alex at home. Trapped in a puppet conversation, he pictures gnawing himself free like an animal in a trap, then remembers his grandfather's advice about not being a jerk.
- Second half
In what book does a student refuse a gritty novel because his father is a CEO?
✓ Answer
New Kid by Jerry Craft
Miss Brickner hands Maury an award winning novel about a poor, fatherless boy, certain he will identify with the main character. Maury politely hands it right back and tells her his dad runs a Fortune 500 company.
- Second half
In what book does a visitor say a whole apartment would fit inside one family's den?
✓ Answer
New Kid by Jerry Craft
Jordan walks into Liam's entry hall and cannot stop comparing it to home, admitting he only knows the word den from television. He keeps reminding himself of the promise he made not to judge.
- Near the end
In what book does an abstract painter reveal she can paint a horse realistically?
✓ Answer
New Kid by Jerry Craft
Jordan assumed Ms. Slate painted abstracts because she could not do better, so she shows him a horse and a sleeping child she painted. She says she chooses abstraction to break boundaries, and she invites him on the school trip to Paris.
