BOTM for October is New Kid

[SaraKat]

Leave your comments about our BOTM on this thread.

[[deleted user]]

Do people get together to discuss this book? If so, please let me know where.

[Melanie]

@Samantha,
We discuss the book here. Go ahead and get us started!

[Blair]

This book is going to be my library's MG book club book in April, and it was one I inherited from a previous librarian, but chose to stick with for a few reasons. For one, I think there are some really good ideas in here about friendship and tolerance. I also think that the themes of being new, feeling out of place, and not immediately getting what you want is something that is a great lesson and idea for kids.

HOWEVER, I also feel like it is VERY MG in its holey plot. I can appreciate that in graphic novels- and truthfully, MG books in many cases- we skip around and jump through time to hit highlights, but I think it leaves the characters feeling very 2D.
I feel like it might have served this book more if we focused less on covering a huge scope of time, and more on covering a few actual detailed incidents to really expand on the ideas more.

I will be interested to see what my book clubbers think about this book when we get to it.

[Maria]

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. Great characters, and a simple, non-preachy way of communicating the difficulties of being the new kid, and a kid of color, in a mostly white private school. It's definitely middle-grade. I've read some reviews criticizing it's lack of complexity, but I thought the story was well plotted and nuanced. I've also read reviews saying the art is sloppy, but I don't know enough about that to comment on it--I enjoyed the art!

[Justine]

I read it off and on over the last month and finally finished it. I rarely read graphic novels, so I read this in my usual way when I read prose. I simply read the words and paid very little attention to the drawings. I soon realised it was not a good idea as I got confused over the characters! I had to backtrack and re-read a few times to follow the story as a result of this.
I agree with Blair. I think this book has some great themes.

[SaraKat]

I finally got my copy and read it. I enjoyed it and thought it had some really good messages and some clever humor. The way racism is shown here is not overly preachy and outrageous. It is a great portrayal of how microaggressions can add up and cause problems even though they seem insignificant or invisible to others. I enjoyed reading from Jordan's POV. I liked the art.

[J.S.]

Justine wrote: "I read it off and on over the last month and finally finished it. I rarely read graphic novels, so I read this in my usual way when I read prose. I simply read the words and paid very little attent..."

This answers the question I came here to ask. I haven't read a graphic novel before so I was wondering if it would make sense if I listened to the audiobook instead. I'll wait for the ebook to be available after reading this comment. Thanks!

[J.S.]

Annie wrote: "J.S. wrote: "Justine wrote: "I read it off and on over the last month and finally finished it. I rarely read graphic novels, so I read this in my usual way when I read prose. I simply read the word..."

Thank you!