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School Trip (New Kid #3)

by Jerry Craft (Goodreads Author)

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-_- said: " Very very good book read it 3 times i really recommend it. Its fun and fast to read i got stuck to the plot very fast
Jerry Craft continues to make a lot of great points about racism and microaggressions with his junior high characters, but this meand Very very good book read it 3 times i really recommend it. Its fun and fast to read i got stuck to the plot very fast
Jerry Craft continues to make a lot of great points about racism and microaggressions with his junior high characters, but this meandering class trip to Paris is overstuffed with too many characters taking too many digressions at too slow a pace. A middle school graphic novel usually take me thirty or sixty minutes to read, but School Trip took me a full two hours, making me wonder how many kids will actually get through the whole thing.

My main goal for reading this book was seeing the awful teacher, Timothy Roche, get some sort of comeuppance for his racist behavior in the first two books. But suddenly, that behavior disappears with no demonstration of his self-awareness of the problem or signs of personal growth regarding it. So when he finally reaps his bad karma, it's just for being a stupid person in general instead of following through on the previous storyline.

The full weight of coming to terms with past bad behavior instead falls on Andy Peterson, a racist classmate who bullies through teasing and bad jokes. His telling off is much deserved and closer to what I wanted to see for Roche. Unfortunately, the power of this arc is diluted by all the other stuff going on around it, making me wish it had been the center of the graphic novel instead a B-storyline in a book with storylines going most of the way down the alphabet.

As an often negative reviewer, I also have to take umbrage with the whole "thumbs-downer" concept Craft promotes throughout the book, from dedication to closing pages. I get wanting to push back against negativity, especially with all the real-life consequences Craft has felt with his books being challenged in schools and libraries, but the idea seems half-baked at best. It starts out as, if you have nothing nice to say then don't say anything, but then gets muddled as a character employs the thumbs down in the end to express disapproval of bad behavior. So thumbs down is bad when used against things Craft likes, but good when used against things Craft doesn't like? That sounds less like a philosophy than how everyone on social media already behaves. Getting a thumbs down sucks, but stifling their use or choosing who gets to use them goes against the very freedom of expression Craft otherwise seems to promote.

Still, despite my negativity, Craft and I probably agree on more things than not, and I do appreciate what he is trying to accomplish with this series even if this entry left me bored and frustrated. ...more "

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(page 247 of 247)
— Mar 07, 2025 12:09AM

Mar 07, 2025 12:08AM · see review