New Boy [Paperback]

Julian Houston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 14, 2008

“This is history without the sensationalism, in which small acts of resistance eventually change the rules.”—New York Times Book Review “The strong cast of characters, steady progression of events, realistic dialogue, historical facts, touch of romance, and coming-of-age awareness and reflection will appeal to readers.”—School Library Journal In this compelling debut novel, a sixteen-year-old African American boy discovers the world—and himself—when he integrates an all-white boarding school in the 1950s.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 7-10–In the 1950s, Rob Garrett, 15, leaves Virginia for a prestigious Connecticut boarding school. His dentist father and schoolteacher mother are proud of their sons academic record and potential but anxious because he is the first African American to attend Draper. Rob quickly learns that bigotry takes many forms. He befriends Vinnie, whose acne, New York-Italian background, and vulnerability make him a target among the elitist students. On a weekend visit to a cousin who lives in Harlem, Rob unwittingly encounters Malcolm X and his followers and discovers a hostile, separatist attitude that disparages association with whites and Jews. When Rob learns that a lunch counter sit-in is planned in his hometown, he joins the protest, but then returns to Draper to pursue his dream of success. Although he is not in the activist trenches of the Civil Rights movement, his story sheds light on the social dilemmas that confronted privileged African Americans at the time. Wary but remarkably focused, Rob espouses the need to represent his race well and to make a difference. He is a well-spoken, reflective observer who empathizes with the pain of others but remains relatively unscathed. While maintaining honor-roll status, he contemplates the rise and fall of Joe Louis, is intrigued by the Harlem culture, and ponders the explosive rage of Minister Malcolm. The strong cast of characters, steady progression of events, realistic dialogue, historical facts, touch of romance, and coming-of-age awareness and reflection will appeal to readers.–Gerry Larson, Durham School of the Arts, NC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 8-11. As the first black student in an elite Connecticut boarding school in the late 1950s, Rob Garrett, 16, knows he is making history. He works hard not to fall off the honor roll, even as he misses his home in Virginia and feels like a stranger in the dorm and in class. When his friends in the South plan a sit-in against segregation, he knows he must be part of it. The author of this powerful debut novel, now a judge in Massachusetts, writes from the inside about the civil rights struggle, always clear about the blatant racism (the n-word is used throughout) and the differences within the African American community as they cut across class, region, and generations. There is almost too much fact woven into the fiction (for example, Rob's history essay about Reconstruction and his visit to Harlem, where he sees Malcolm X), and too much on the debates about integration and black power. But the honest first-person narrative makes stirring drama, touching on the fear and exhilaration of the group protests and the segregation in unexpected places, as well as Rob's personal discovery of failure and courage. A great addition to the history shelves, this brings up much for discussion about then and now. Along with titles in the adjacent Read-alikes columns, suggest Viola Canales'Tequila Worm (2005) and Marlene Carvell's Sweetgrass Basket (2005), which also deal with prejudice at boarding school. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Graphia (January 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 061888405X
• ISBN-13: 978-0618884056
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Social Issues > Prejudice & Racism
  • #86 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Teens > History & Historical Fiction > Historical Fiction
  • #93 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Social Situations > Self-Esteem & Self-Respect

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New Boy, January 3, 2007

By 

Jewish Book World Magazine (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Boy (Hardcover)

In New Boy, sixteen-year-old Rob Garrett leaves his segregated town in Virginia to become the first student of color at an elite Connecticut boarding school. While Rob encounters mainly ignorance and indifference toward the situation of African-Americans, he witnesses outright persecution as well when a classmate is mercilessly bullied for his Italian origins and acne. Another student, Gordie Burns, endures insults for his Jewish heritage. Rob's middle-class parents have shielded him from the humiliating effects of segregation, driving him everywhere so he wouldn't have to sit in the back of the bus. But times are changing. In March of that watershed academic year, Rob returns home for a long weekend to join his friends for a sit-in at the lunch counter of the local Woolworth's department store, which refuses to serve African-Americans. Based on the author information, the novel has a strong autobiographical element. While the characterization is sometimes thin, the novel is absorbing and ultimately very moving, vividly teaching young readers about the early Civil Rights era. Readers will have to look elsewhere for depictions of Jews' participation in the Civil Rights movement (such as Heeding the Call by Norman Finkelstein and Speed of Light by Sybil Rosen). But the novel compelling shows how prejudice came in many forms in the 1950s -- and it encourages readers to consider how this is still the case. Gordie Burns is wealthy and white, yet he and Rob seem to connect over their different experiences of prejudice, which have caused them to reject the narrow values of their WASP schoolmates. Rob Garrett learns that the Burns changed their last name to sound less Jewish; and when Gordie takes Rob to a jazz club in Harlem, he runs into his family's black chauffeur, who has become a follower of Malcolm X and calls Rob a "Jew-lover." Written in deceptively straightforward prose, this powerful novel does not shy away from showing historical hardship and complexity. For ages 12 to 18.
Reviewed by Phoebe Spanier

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Educatory and Interesting, July 20, 2006

By 

Amanda Fetters - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: New Boy (Hardcover)

Set in the early 1960s, teenager Rob Garrett becomes the first black student to be admitted to Draper, a prestigious prep school in Connecticut. Although Rob, coming from Virginia, is no stranger to intense racism and segregation, he experiences few or no such problems at Draper.

He does, however, encounter anti-Semitism of the most viscious kind, and watches as events unfold that are eerily reminiscent of whites' treatment of blacks in the South. Against this background, Rob does a lot of soul-searching about civil rights and his place in bringing about social change and justice.

Houston deals very well with helping readers imagine what it was like to be young and black in that time and place. He frames history wonderfully, bringing in bits about jazz, New York City, black celebrities, and so on. Some of Houston's dialogue is a bit monologue-ish and not quite real, and there are a few cameo appearances that are rather unrealistic, though educatory.

Still, "New Boy" is an engaging story with plenty to discuss and mull over. Through it, readers will see segregation from multiple viewpoints, learn about the Civil Rights movement, and watch as Rob finds and defines himself in the midst of both personal and social change.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars curiously un-moving, February 17, 2006

By 

E. M. Bristol "bibliophile" (boston, mass) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: New Boy (Hardcover)

"It won't be easy," the narrator's cousin tells him referring to his attending a posh New England prep school, and it isn't. Rob, who has previously attended the public schools of his Southern hometown, struggles with issues of class and race at his new school. The odd thing, though, is that three quarters of these growth experiences take place OUT of school. The narrator is barely back at school before he's bouncing off again on vacation. So it is not really a story about the prep school life.

Most of the racism and classism Rob encounters and struggles with occurs away from the school. Through his friendship with a Jewish student and their experiences in Harlem, he becomes aware of Malcolm X and the civil rights movement. Eventually, he and his friends back home form a sit-in, however the action is over in just a few pages, while the reader is reasonably expecting it to be the climax of the book.

The narrator is smart and likeable, but the reader feels a distance; although the events that occur are by turns painful, exhilirating and disturbing, it is as if the author is holding us at arm's length.