“Shoot, I don’t even feel at home here,” he says. Roche, a walking microaggression in a skinny tie, recruits him and another Black student to make a visiting group of South Bronx eighth graders feel at home.
In this follow-up, Drew, one of Jordan’s closest pals, struggles with both the privileged realm of RAD and his life in the Co-op City section of the Bronx, where his childhood buddies call him a “bougie” snob who “ain’t really like us no more.”ĭrew feels lost. “Class Act” is the sequel to Craft’s introspective, Newbery Medal-winning book, “ New Kid,” in which a 12-year-old named Jordan Banks arrives at RAD as a wide-eyed transplant from Washington Heights. It’s the perfect setup for a moving and often very funny story about the convergence of an awkward age (13 to 14) with an awkward age (America’s racial reckoning). Plus, RAD has the kind of curated diversity in which a just-right sprinkle of children of color enriches the educational experiences of a white majority. The library is top-notch, and athletic and arts programs are well funded. Class sizes are small, and students sit Socratic-style at round tables. Such is life as a Black student at the private Riverdale Academy Day School, or RAD, the setting of Jerry Craft’s new graphic novel, “Class Act.” You can imagine a lot of New York parents throwing elbows for a spot at RAD.
A white student who has a crush on him has burdened him with a giant sweet potato pie. Curious hands keep reaching for his hair, newly styled in a kinky hi-top. It’s the first day of eighth grade and Drew Ellis is already stressed.
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