After coming to the aid of a young noble named Merielle, Haruka finds himself with a free pass to leave and enter the city at his own discretion! What's the first thing on his mind? Running back to the woods so he can resume his loner life, of course!

But before he can abandon his friends, he has a small matter to attend to... Just where are the nerds? And, come to think of it... Where are those meatheaded jocks? Curious as to the fates of his classmates, Haruka delves into the depths of the forest to hunt them down... But what he finds chills him to the bone.

Now faced with a fearsome new enemy, one who savagely employs facts and logic to seize victory, our loner hero must push himself to the limit and make the greatest gambit of all!

Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang, New Kid is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real, from award-winning author-illustrator Jerry Craft. 

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?

This middle grade graphic novel is an excellent choice for tween readers, including for summer reading.

New Kid is a selection of the Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List.

Plus don't miss Jerry Craft's Class Act!

This engaging book is part of our Superflex series, which is designed to help children learn about their own and others’ thoughts and behaviors, and practice strategies for self-regulation across a variety of situations. As kids learn strategies to defeat the Unthinkables and unexpected behavior, they strengthen their flexible thinking and are better able to self-regulate in challenging times.

This illustrated storybook connects to and supports these Social Thinking Vocabulary concepts:

·       Figuring out the size of the problem

·       Learning to match reaction size to size of the problem (expected behavior)

·       Social attention/observation: what are other kids doing/how are they reacting?

·       Flexible Thinking

·       Using strategies to defeat Glassman: calming my body, breathing in, tightening all my muscles, breathing out and relaxing them; using positive self-talk, etc.

·       The Five-Step Power Plan helps organize children’s thinking so they can more effectively problem solve what’s happening around them. This aligns with and supports the four steps in the Social Thinking Social Competency Model: attend, interpret, problem solve, respond. 

·       Using the Five-Step Power Plan to assess the social dilemma.

Adults who are using the Superflex curriculum and concepts can use Superflex and Kool Q. Cumber to the Rescue!in several ways:

·       To help children celebrate their ability to defeat Glassman when he appears

·       To teach about and illustrate how calling upon Kool Q. Cumber can help them remember to match the size of their reaction to the size of a problem

·       As a companion book to Glassman, to help children compare and contrast the inner workings of their brain in tackling everyday social challenges related to problem and reaction sizes

·       In situations where students find it fun to act out ONLY the negative powers of the Unthinkables, use Kool Q. Cumber to shift attention to the positive powers for defeating Glassman. Focusing exclusively on the negative powers prevents students from learning how to defeat an Unthinkable!

·       Kool Q. Cumber can help when other Unthinkables invade a student’s brain alongside Glassman—Rock Brain, Worry Wall, and D.O.F. (Destroyer of Fun), etc.