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Jerry Craft’s Inspiring Visit: A Journey from New Kid to Award-Winning Author
By Kasey Short, Middle School Director of Studies
ON OCTOBER 16 AND 17, we welcomed award-winning author Jerry Craft as our 2023 Diversity Guest Author. His book, New Kid, is the only book to win the Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Award, and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers. It is also the first and only graphic novel to win a Newbery Medal.
Mr. Craft uses humor to entertain and engage readers while also tackling important issues. His books feature diverse characters that provide students from various backgrounds an opportunity to see themselves in the stories and develop empathy and understanding for those who are different than them. His visit left students in grades 3–12 inspired to read, write, and create visual art while also broadening their perspectives and understanding of the world.
During his two-day visit, Mr. Craft engaged in four large group presentations and five small group meetings with students and faculty. In addition, he spontaneously spent a sixth-grade PE period shooting hoops with students. The students were in awe of his basketball skills and thrilled with the opportunity to get to know him better on the court. This unplanned moment of his visit turned out to be a highlight for him and the students.
In Lower School, Mr. Craft presented to third- and fourth-grade students and shared his experience as a graphic novel writer and illustrator by giving insight into his creative process. Students loved seeing him create art in real time and were amazed at how he could combine simple shapes to make complex art. He did a similar presentation for fifth graders. These students enjoyed meeting someone who creates graphic novels and seeing how the words and pictures come together to make a story.
Our Middle School students (grades 6–8) had all read and discussed New Kid prior to the author’s visit. This shared reading experience increased excitement around the visit and allowed Mr. Craft to have a more meaningful and complex presentation, knowing that students were already familiar with the story.
In Upper School, Mr. Craft presented to the entire student body and connected his journey from being a student who hated reading to an award-winning author and illustrator. These students appreciated his humor, honesty, and talent. His work as an artist was especially intriguing for many of our students. A small group of Upper and Middle School art students participated in a comic drawing workshop, in which he shared his technical and creative process while also guiding students to create their own art.
Mr. Craft also met with the Middle School African American Affinity group and the Upper School Diversity Awareness Forum.
Since 2006, our Diversity Guest Author Series has welcomed numerous literary giants, including Walter Dean Myers, Sonia Levitin, Jacqueline Woodson, Justina Chen, Joseph Bruchac, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Neela Vaswani, Kekla Magoon, Matt de la Peña, Charles R. Smith Jr., Nina LaCour, Nic Stone, and Alicia D. Williams.
