Review of New Boy
The book "New Boy" by Julian Houston follows a common theme of many teenage level books: breaking the system.
In "New Boy", Rob Garret is a southern black boy attending an all white high school in the north. This is during the time when there is still segregation in the South. He is the first and only black student at the school. While Rob is struggling to keep his honor roll in the North, his friends are organizing a sit in at a store that practices segregation in the South. Rob returns south so that he could participate in the sit in by handing out flyers in front of the store.
Like in "Little Brother", "Hacking Harvard", and "1984", Rob and his friends fight the system. Since the whites had decided that the blacks were lower than them, then they could not do the same things as them. Blacks had to sit at the back of the bus. Blacks couldn’t eat or even sit at the coffee shop in stores. Well, to deliberately sit at the coffee shop and wait until you’re served when you’re black? That’s fighting the system!
Rob also learns that racism takes place in the north also, only it’s different. Carrot, a popular bully who goes to high school in the north, does not bully Rob. But, he does bully Rob’s friends. They endlessly bully Vinnie because Vinnie has bad acne. They throw shaving cream bombs in his room at midnight and hide dog crap in his closet. They even segregate the bathroom by putting up signs that say "Vinnie’s toilet" and "Vinnie’s sink."
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ISBN: 061888405X |
New Boy (9780618884056): Julian Houston: Books
