Class ACT Lib/E
The audiobook was a 2020 Audie Awards Finalist for Middle Grade and named an Audible Best Audiobook of the Year. This time, its Jordans friend Drew who takes center stage in another laugh-out-loud funny, powerful, and important story about being one of the few kids of color in a prestigious private school. Eighth grader Drew Ellis is no stranger to the saying You have to work twice as hard to be just as good. His grandmother has reminded him his entire life. But what if he works ten times as hard and still isnt afforded the same opportunities that his privileged classmates at the Riverdale Academy Day School take for granted? To make matters worse, Drew begins to feel as if his good friend Liam might be one of those privileged kids. He wants to pretend like everything is fine, but it's hard not to withdraw, and even their mutual friend Jordan doesn't know how to keep the group together. As the pressures mount, will Drew find a way to bridge the divide so he and his friends can truly accept each other? And most important, will he finally be able to accept himself? This original full-cast audio adaptation of the graphic novel is performed by Jesus Del Orden, Nile Bullock, Guy Lockard, Robin Miles, Peyton Lusk, Marc Thompson, Rebecca Soler, Dan Bittner, January LaVoy, Phoebe Strole, Jordan Cobb, Ron Butler, A.J Beckles, Miles J. Harvey, Kim Mai Guest, Kyla Garcia, and Soneela Nankani. New Kid, the first graphic novel to win the Newbery Medal, is now joined by Jerry Craft's powerful Class Act. Review "Craft again produces a funny and appealing yet sensitive and nuanced middle grade tale of inequity and microaggressions."-- "School Library Journal" "[A] visually rich, truth-telling tale for our troubled times that affirms the eternal importance of friends."-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)" "Craft makes the story honest and believable and presents it as a powerful, if difficult to achieve, real-world possibility. He has worked on numerous picture books, graphic novels, and middle grade novels. He has won five African American Literary Awards, and he is a cofounder of the Schomburg Center's Annual Black Comic Book Festival. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts and now lives in Connecticut. Visit him online at www.jerrycraft.com. She graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in drama. She has appeared on Broadway in Spring Awakening and in various films and television series, including Hamlet 2, 30 Rock, Glee, and Rescue Me. Robin Miles, named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, has twice won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, an Audie Award for directing, and many Earphones Awards. Her film and television acting credits include The Last Days of Disco, Primary Colors, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order, New York Undercover, National Geographic's Tales from the Wild, All My Children, and One Life to Live. She regularly gives seminars to members of SAG and AFTRA actors' unions, and in 2005 she sta