Jerry Craft: Hi, my name is Jerry Craft and I'm the author and the illustrator of the graphic novel New Kid, which is the first graphic novel ever to win the John W. Newbery Medal. New Kid was inspired maybe 60% by my life and 40% by the lives of my two sons. I wanted to be an artist and my parents did not want me to be an artist, much like Jordan.

Instead of getting to go to art school like I wanted, I got sent to a school in the Riverdale section of Bronx. In Jordan's case, it is Riverdale Academy Day School. So all of that stuff is me as well as always being one of the youngest and the smallest kids in my class almost my entire life up until college.

Then I had two sons and, as a dad, I got to see even more of the intricacies of their life when they also went to an independent school, this time in Connecticut. A lot of the things such as the fashions and what the kids do and how they talk. Getting African American kids mixed up with each other as well as African American teachers. And just the daily thing of having kids from different socioeconomic levels. Going over to a kid's house who may live in a mansion. What is that like? Are you embarrassed to have him to your house? Are you embarrassed to go over their house?

And also I think the teachers, being well meaning, but well meaning does not always mean that their practice is to the level that it can be to help kids who feel different in an area like this.

I have found that the story arc is really the way to start. And then that's like the skeletal system of the story. And then I go ahead and the next layer is adding the next step, the meaty part, adding the muscles. And then after I do that I go back and then I'll add the facial features. Then I'll go back and by the end I'm adding the clothes. And in that case, the clothing is like the background characters and little things that happened and just things that really give it a fresh start, even if you're reading it for the second time or sometimes even a third time, you may notice things that you did not see in the first couple times.

Two of my favorite spreads involve conversations that Jordan has with some of the incidental characters. So one being when he goes to lunch with his grandfather, that's one of my favorites. When they go to a Chinese restaurant.

I think my other one is when Jordan and Alexandra, who is the weird puppet girl, or at least that's what everyone thinks she is. Well, that's when Jordan realizes that she's not just the weird kid and that she deserves every right to be seen and heard and respected that everyone else does.