Jerry Craft
Jerry Craft was born in New York City and grew up in Harlem, an experience that has profoundly shaped both the content and the perspective of his work as a graphic novelist and children’s book creator. Craft attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where he studied cartooning and illustration, and he has spent his career creating work that reflects the lives and experiences of Black children and families with joy, complexity, and humor. Before breaking through with his debut graphic novel, Craft spent many years working as an illustrator and creating his own web comic, Mama’s Boyz, which ran for over two decades and demonstrated his gifts for character, humor, and the rendering of everyday Black life.
Craft’s debut graphic novel, New Kid (2019), follows twelve-year-old Jordan Banks, a Black kid from Harlem who earns a scholarship to a predominantly white private school and must navigate the cultural differences, microaggressions, and expectations — from both worlds — that come with moving between them. Told in Craft’s warm, expressive artwork and sharp, funny dialogue, the novel was immediately recognized as a landmark work in children’s graphic fiction. It won the Newbery Medal, the Coretta Scott King Author Award, and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature — a historic achievement as the first graphic novel ever to win the Newbery Medal.
The sequel, Class Act (2020), continues the story from the perspective of Jordan’s friend Drew, exploring similar themes of race, class, and belonging from a different vantage point and demonstrating Craft’s ability to develop multiple perspectives within a consistent world. Both books have been widely adopted in schools and libraries across the United States as essential texts for conversations about diversity, identity, and the experience of navigating multiple worlds — and as simply excellent, funny, moving graphic novels that students read eagerly.
Craft’s work is celebrated for its accessibility, its humor, its emotional authenticity, and its ability to address serious social issues without ever losing the lightness and joy that make his books irresistible to young readers. He draws with a warmth and expressiveness that makes his characters immediately lovable, and he writes dialogue that crackles with the energy of lived experience. Jerry Craft lives in Connecticut and continues to create graphic novels that celebrate Black childhood and challenge all young readers to think about the worlds they inhabit.