This is book 3 in Jerri Craft’s book about the Riverdale Academy Day school. Book one won a Newberry. book 2 was a Class Act, and book 3 is semi-boring. It has taken this reader over three months to finish this middle grade graphic novel. The beginning of it reads very much like the first book does where Jordan once again is feeling nervous and anxious. Only this time changing schools is picking the right high school. 

 

It’s the last semester at the school which means it’s time for a class trip and our characters are headed to Paris. Technically, there’s multiple places for the students to go, and one of the more obnoxious characters purposely gets teachers on the wrong trips. A lot of this book focuses on the obnoxious character Andrew, and how he treats people. I think it’s that obnoxiousness that took me out of this story and did not make it as engrossing as the first two books. But around 3/4 of the way through, Drew and Andy have a showdown while in Paris. It’s that meeting which takes place in all of six pages that’s going to get this book banned. 

 

This meeting is Drew and Andrew talking about 1) how Andy treats people, and 2) how Drew is automatically disadvantaged because of his race. What I love about this, it’s a very real conversation. Drew talks about how things are just more uncomfortable for him because he is black. and Andrew talks about why he feels uncomfortable because Drew is black, and how society reacts. At this page in the book the art goes to black-and-white silhouettes as they’re making these arguments back and forth. These are arguments heard in modern media right now. These are the arguments that the predominantly Republicans, right wing Republicans, are making about how talking about race makes the white kids feel uncomfortable.  This book brings it to the forefront where the mean bully white kid says well, I am uncomfortable because you have these advantages that I don’t have.  Drew points out that without those advantage (affirmative action) his race would be dirt under Andrew’s feet. 

 

Both of them talking about what is fair and what’s not fair, and Drew pointing out that just because Andy has a white name and a white presence, he’s automatically has advantages that Drew will never have. There’s an issue in the book where something happens in a store and Andrew says “just take it back” and Drew says “I’m not gonna do that”.  When the reader gets to this argument, Drew states he didn’t want to take it back because bad things can. This was done in such a great simplistic way to show both arguments and that it’s OK for someone not to feel uncomfortable because it turns out everybody feels uncomfortable. 

 

It’s the last fourth of this book that made me think of this book like the rest of the series. The build up to get to these parts was too long and after this argument, they get back to the states and meet with a teacher who’s always treated the children differently based on their race going hey, I got sent to the special program and now I understanding why to buy diverse  books, but now these books are banned, because well hell yeah that’s the modern world we live in. Overall, the ending makes this book work. It was a struggle to get there, but by the end it was entirely worth it.