New Boy

Book 19 of my 2018 Reading Challenge

**I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books and would like to thank the author and/or publisher for the opportunity to read and honestly review it**

New Boy by Tracy Chevalier

Summary (via the book jacket)
Arriving at his fourth school in six years, diplomat's son Osei Kokote knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day - so he's lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one student can't stand to witness this budding relationship: Ian decides to destroy the friendship between the black boy and the golden girl. By the end of the day, the school and its key players - teachers and pupils alike - will never be the same again.

My Opinion
I'm not familiar enough with "Othello" as a story to rate this as a retelling so I'll only be talking about this book by itself.

It was really engaging.  Normally I would be super anxious when reading about these kinds of events (It doesn't usually go well for the black male when people don't like his relationship with a white female) but since the characters are 6th graders it lowered the stakes a bit.  The characters acted older than I expect 11-year-olds to which the author explained by saying this is the age "when you are trying out grown-up attitudes without really understanding them"; I agree with that.

There was an interesting and unfortunately true note from the author, that this story (black person entering a predominantly white environment and being treated with suspicion) was relevant 400 years ago when Shakespeare wrote it, it was relevant in this book's setting of the 1970's, and it's still relevant today.

Quote from the Book 
"Today [O] was facing yet another playground full of white kids staring at him, another bunch of boys sizing him up, another bell ringing the same pitch heard all over the world, another teacher at the head of the line eyeing him uneasily. He had been through all of this before, and it was all familiar. Except for her."