I've found the best cameo in kidlit everyone else can pack it up and go home.

so it's time to talk about CLASS ACT by @JerryCraft, now that I've read it twice and can I just tell you can I JUST TELL YOU that I love when a book takes every expectation I have and vaults over them? Because that's what this book does.

I can't IMAGINE the pressure of following NEW KID - how can you possibly try? And what @JerryCraft does that is so brilliant is that he doesn't at all try to "recreate" the same story, the same dynamic. He understands there is still SO MUCH more to say. In new ways.

And so he just does that! Instead of trying to just center Jordan again and be like "and then in the NEXT year of Jordan's life -" he lets us into Drew's world. BUT we still get to spend time with Jordan, he is still VERY present in the book. Brilliant! Perfect!

and AGAIN - the deft way @JerryCraft handles the PRESSURES of middle school for all the kids but still centers kids of color and Black kids, the way he skewers the harm white adults to do Black kids without ever missing a beat in the humor and joy of the story. THIS IS GENIUS.

CLASS ACT asks real, hard, no easy answer questions about privilege and colorism and how white kids have to do work to bridge those divides, how it's not all the work of Black kids to make their white peers feel loved and comfortable. I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT.

in almost any other work of fiction, a character like Alexandra would be the punchline. Or there would be something wrong with her. But a creator like @JerryCraft sees her as a heroine. That empathy, kindness, INSIGHT for middle school kids...it brings me to tears every time.

there were moments reading CLASS ACT when, as a white woman in librarianship/education I felt uncomfortable and I felt called out, times when I had to stop and think about my own behavior and actions. And I hope many other white adults reading will have this same experience.

how can you follow a book like NEW KID, a book that shook the core of kidlit? @JerryCraft knows the answer is: keep telling the truth. Because that's what CLASS ACT is. Truth. Sometimes it's hard and there's no easy answer. But kids will SEE the truth here. And they'll love it.

anyway buy 10 copies of this for your libraries and classes and get one for every kid you know, trust me they'll love it. https://www.harpercollins.com/products/class-act-jerry-craft?variant=32118199058466 and be prepared for me to talk about this book for the rest of forever, sorry it's just who I am now.