Jerry Craft.Quill Tree

Jun 29, 2023 | slj.com | Jerry Craft.Quill Tree |Cicely Lewis |Kathy Ishizuka

In Jerry Craft’s Newbery Award–winning graphic novel, New Kid, the librarian recommends that Maury, a Black student, read The Mean Streets of South Uptown: A Gritty Tale of Survival because he is Black. She tells him, “You’re really going to identify with DaQuell, the protagonist. He’s suffered so much growing up in poverty without a father.”Maury responds, “Ummm…thanks Miss Brickner.