2020 Audie Awards® Finalist—Middle Grade
Winner of the Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature, and an Audie Award finalist!
An original full-cast audio adaptation of the graphic novel from award-winning author-illustrator Jerry Craft, performed by the author with Jesus Del Orden, Nile Bullock, Robin Miles, Guy Lockard, Peyton Lusk, Rebecca Soler, Dan Bittner, Phoebe Strole, Marc Thompson, Miles Harvey, and Ron Butler. Named an Audible Best Audiobook of the Year!
Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang, New Kid is a timely, honest novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real.
Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade.
As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds—and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?
Filled with sound effects and original music, this audio adventure is one the whole family will enjoy.
A selection of the Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List.
Plus don't miss Jerry Craft's Class Act!
Download and start listening now!
“This engaging story offers an authentic secondary cast and captures the high jinks of middle schoolers and the tensions that come with being a person of color in a traditionally white space.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“More than a story about being the new kid—it’s a complex examination of the micro- and macroaggressions that Jordan endures from classmates and teachers…Highly recommended.”
— School Library Journal (starred review)“Speaking up about the unrepresented experience of so many students makes this a necessary book, particularly for this age group.”
— Booklist (starred review)“[A] heartbreakingly accurate middle-grade tale of race, class, microaggressions, and the quest for self-identity…Engrossing, humorous, and vitally important.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Jerry Craft is the author books for children, including bestselling graphic novel New Kid, which won the Newbery Medal, the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Kirkus Prize. He has worked on numerous picture books, graphic novels, and middle grade novels. He is the creator of Mama’s Boyz, an award-winning syndicated comic strip. He has won five African American Literary Awards, and he is a cofounder of the Schomburg Center’s Annual Black Comic Book Festival. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts. Visit him online at www.jerrycraft.com.
Miles Harvey is the author of the national and international bestseller The Island of Lost Maps and the recipient of a Knight-Wallace journalism fellowship. His book Painter in a Savage Land was named a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year. He teaches at DePaul University.
Robin Miles, named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, has twice won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, an Audie Award for directing, and many Earphones Awards. Her film and television acting credits include The Last Days of Disco, Primary Colors, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order, New York Undercover, National Geographic’s Tales from the Wild, All My Children, and One Life to Live. She regularly gives seminars to members of SAG and AFTRA actors’ unions, and in 2005 she started Narration Arts Workshop in New York City, offering audiobook recording classes and coaching. She holds a BA degree in theater studies from Yale University, an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama, and a certificate from the British American Drama Academy in England.
Rebecca Soler is a film and voice-over actress and winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards for audiobook narration. Her voice-over credits include various video games, like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Red Dead Redemption, and television shows such as Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Marc Thompson, a voice actor and Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator, earned his BFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, in 1997. He narrates many titles in the New York Times bestselling Star Wars series, and his voice can be heard in commercials, on radio, and on many cartoons, including MTV’s Daria, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and G.I. Joe: Sigma 6.
Dan Bittner is an actor and voice talent and winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards for audio narration. He has starred on stage and on the screen, in movies such as Men in Black, Adventureland, and the Producers: The Movie Musical. He has also appeared onstage as Macbeth and Sherlock Holmes in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Ron Butler is a Los Angeles–based actor, Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator, and voice artist with over a hundred film and television credits. Most kids will recognize him from the three seasons he spent on Nickelodeon’s True Jackson, VP. He works regularly as a commercial and animation voice-over artist and has voiced a wide variety of audiobooks. He is a member of the Atlantic Theater Company and an Independent Filmmaker Project Award winner for his work in the HBO film Everyday People.
Phoebe Strole is an actress and an Earphones Award–winning narrator who was a finalist in 2014 for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. She graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in drama. She has appeared on Broadway in Spring Awakening and in various films and television series, including Hamlet 2, 30 Rock, Glee, and Rescue Me.