Speaking up about the unrepresented experience of so many students makes this a necessary book, particularly for this age group.

This engaging story offers an authentic secondary cast and captures the high jinks of middle schoolers and the tensions that come with being a person of color in a traditionally white space.

[A] heartbreakingly accurate middle-grade tale of race, class, microaggressions, and the quest for self-identity...Engrossing, humorous, and vitally important.

More than a story about being the new kid-it's a complex examination of the micro- and macroaggressions that Jordan endures from classmates and teachers...Highly recommended.

Jerry Craft is an author and illustrator who has worked on numerous picture books, graphic novels, and middle grade novels, including The Zero Degree Zombie Zone by Patrik Henry Bass. He is the creator of Mama's Boyz, an award-winning syndicated comic strip. 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 degree from the School of Visual Arts. Visit him online at www.jerrycraft.net.

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 started Narration Arts Workshop in New York City, offering audiobook recording classes and coaching. She holds a BA degree in theater studies from Yale University, an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama, and a certificate from the British American Drama Academy in England.

Rebecca Soler is a film and voice-over actress and winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards for audiobook narration. Her voice-over credits include various video games, like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Red Dead Redemption, and television shows such as Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Marc Thompson, a voice actor and Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator, earned his BFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, in 1997. He narrates many titles in the New York Times bestselling Star Wars series, and his voice can be heard in commercials, on radio, and on many cartoons, including MTV's Daria, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and G.I. Joe: Sigma 6.

Dan Bittner is an actor and voice talent and winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards for audio narration. He has starred on stage and on the screen, in movies such as Men in Black, Adventureland, and the Producers: The Movie Musical. He has also appeared onstage as Macbeth and Sherlock Holmes in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.