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A review by sadiereadsagain
New Boy by Tracy Chevalier
4.0
Disclaimer - I have never read Othello or seen it performed. All I know of Shakespeare's play which inspired this retelling is what I read of the Schmoop summary I glanced at before I read this book.
This is a dark exploration of the cruelty of children, the injustice of racism and the senselessness of bullying. Told over the space of one fraught school day where new boy, Ghanaian "O" becomes the only black kid on the playground, this is a dramatic and face paced read. Although I didn't go to school in the 70's, I was transported back to my own school days and thought that Chevalier really captured a lot of the sensations of that age. I thought the characters were really well established, and I thought the storyline was such a clever interpretation of the classic play. The only thing I struggled with was the age of the kids. I know at age 11 there was a lot of one-day relationships and heated games of kiss-chase, but I think if the characters had even been a bit older it would have seemed more believable. But that's such a tiny quibble really, in such a clever story.
This is a dark exploration of the cruelty of children, the injustice of racism and the senselessness of bullying. Told over the space of one fraught school day where new boy, Ghanaian "O" becomes the only black kid on the playground, this is a dramatic and face paced read. Although I didn't go to school in the 70's, I was transported back to my own school days and thought that Chevalier really captured a lot of the sensations of that age. I thought the characters were really well established, and I thought the storyline was such a clever interpretation of the classic play. The only thing I struggled with was the age of the kids. I know at age 11 there was a lot of one-day relationships and heated games of kiss-chase, but I think if the characters had even been a bit older it would have seemed more believable. But that's such a tiny quibble really, in such a clever story.