About the Book
New York Times bestselling author Jerry Craft returns with a companion book to New Kid, winner of the 2020 Newbery Medal, the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Kirkus Prize. The audiobook was a 2020 Audie Awards Finalist for Middle Grade and named an Audible Best Audiobook of the Year.
This time, it's Jordan's friend Drew who takes center stage in another laugh-out-loud funny, powerful, and important story about being one of the few kids of color in a prestigious private school.
Eighth grader Drew Ellis is no stranger to the saying "You have to work twice as hard to be just as good." His grandmother has reminded him his entire life. But what if he works ten times as hard and still isn't afforded the same opportunities that his privileged classmates at the Riverdale Academy Day School take for granted?
To make matters worse, Drew begins to feel as if his good friend Liam might be one of those privileged kids. He wants to pretend like everything is fine, but it's hard not to withdraw, and even their mutual friend Jordan doesn't know how to keep the group together.
As the pressures mount, will Drew find a way to bridge the divide so he and his friends can truly accept each other? And most important, will he finally be able to accept himself?
This original full-cast audio adaptation of the graphic novel is performed by Jesus Del Orden, Nile Bullock, Guy Lockard, Robin Miles, Peyton Lusk, Marc Thompson, Rebecca Soler, Dan Bittner, January LaVoy, Phoebe Strole, Jordan Cobb, Ron Butler, A.J Beckles, Miles J. Harvey, Kim Mai Guest, Kyla Garcia, and Soneela Nankani.
New Kid, the first graphic novel to win the Newbery Medal, is now joined by Jerry Craft's powerful Class Act.
About the Author :
Jerry Craft is the winner of the Newbery Medal for his graphic novel New Kid. He has worked on numerous picture books, graphic novels, and middle grade novels. Jerry 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 and now lives in Connecticut. Visit him online at www.jerrycraft.com.
Marc Thompson earned his BFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, in 1997. 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. He narrates many titles in the Star Wars series. Miles Harvey is the author of the national and international bestseller The Island of Lost Maps (2000), and the recipient of a 2007-2008 Knight-Wallace journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan. His book Painter in a Savage Land (2008) was named a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year and a Booklist Editors' Choice. He teaches creative writing at DePaul University. January Lavoie has narrated the Sweet Valley Confidential series for Macmillan Audio, as well as The Snow Angel by Glenn Beck and Dreams of the Dead by Perri O'Shaughnessy. Kyla Garcia is an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator. Born and raised in Hoboken, New Jersey, she discovered acting at the age of eight when she played Lady Macbeth in a children's adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy. She received her BFA in acting from Rutgers University.
Kim Mai Guest is an award-winning voice actor for audiobooks and video games. She can also be heard on television shows, such as G.I. Joe: Renegades, Batman: the Brave and the Bold, and Avatar, and movies, like Chill Out Scooby Doo and Dead Space: Aftermath. Her video game work includes Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, and The Lord of the Rings. Soneela Nankani is a classically trained actress who has performed in theaters all over the country as well as in acclaimed films and on television. She is an ensemble member of the award-winning Sojourn Theatre. Soneela has narrated over 100 audiobooks and has garnered four Earphones Awards and an Audie nomination. Robin Miles, named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, has won several Audie Awards and many Earphones Awards and AudioFile Best of the Year accolades.
Phoebe Strole originated the role of Anna in the Broadway production of Spring Awakening. Most recently, she starred in Kung Fu at the Signature Theater. Her film and television credits include My One and Only, Hamlet 2, Glee, and Rescue Me. Dan Bittner has narrated dozens of audio books and 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 Malcolm and Sherlock Holmes in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He has narrated popular audio books such as The Eleventh Plague, Hero, and Forever. Rebecca Soler is a film and voiceover actress who won a 2009 AudioFile Earphones Award for her narration of After by Amy Efaw. Her audiobook credits include work by authors such as Judy Blume, James Patterson and Sarah Dessen. Soler has also narrated the popular young adult series The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. 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. She lives in New York City. Guy Lockhard is a voice talent and Earphones Award-winning narrator.
Ron Butler is an actor, Earphones Award-winning narrator, and voice artist with over a hundred film and television credits. He works regularly as a commercial and animation voice-over artist and has voiced a wide variety of audiobooks. He won the Independent Filmmaker Project Award for his work in the HBO film Everyday People.
Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales on 27 October 1914. In 1934 his first book of poetry, Eighteen Poems appeared, followed by Twenty-five Poems in 1936, Deaths and Entrances in 1946 and in 1952 his final volume, Collected Poems. He also published many short stories, wrote filmscripts, broadcast stories and talks, did a series of lecture tours in the United States and wrote Under Milkwood, the radio play.During his fourth lecture tour of the United States in 1953, a few days after his 39th birthday, he collapsed in his New York hotel and died on November 9th at St. Vincent's Hospital. His body was sent back to Laugharne, Wales, where his grave is marked by a simple wooden cross.In June 1994, his wife, Caitlin Thomas, died in Italy, where she had spent most of the years of her life after the death of Dylan Thomas. Her body is buried next to his.
Review :
"Craft again produces a funny and appealing yet sensitive and nuanced middle grade tale of inequity and microaggressions."
-- "School Library Journal"
"[A] visually rich, truth-telling tale for our troubled times that affirms the eternal importance of friends."
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"
"Craft makes the story honest and believable and presents it as a powerful, if difficult to achieve, real-world possibility. Another work of resounding understanding and empathy."
-- "Booklist (starred review)"
