Gaze, Transformation, and the Boy in a Hoodie

Abstract

Breaking the barrier in children’s literature for the format as the first graphic novel to win the prestigious Newbery Award, Jerry Craft’s New Kid is an important bildungsroman for contemporary America. Revolving around its protagonist Jordan Banks, a twelve-year-old middle-class African American boy in New York City, the plot follows his middle school experiences at a predominantly white upscale private school far away from his Washington Heights apartment. Suddenly being exposed to the racializing gazes, he not only feels like a vulnerable outsider but also experiences frustrating microaggressions on a daily basis. Even the bus ride between his neighborhood and school is an exhausting process where he must perform different selves to fit in and conform to the shifting cultural codes on the route. The childish graphic novel that he draws in his sketchbook, however, demonstrates his humor and artistic agency as well as his critical gaze into the contradictions and problems that surround him. Above all, narratives of superhero comics are at play in his growth and transformation from a quiet new kid to a brave champion of the weak who stands up to protect his friends. The cover of New Kid features an average African American boy wearing a hoodie, but the story offers the possibility of an ordinary superhero in a hoodie as well.