Name: Celine's review of New Boy by Tracy Chevalier
Item: New Boy
Rating: 3
Author: Celine

Tracy Chevalier

'O felt her presence behind him like a fire at his back.' Arriving at his fourth school in six years, diplomat's son Osei Kokote knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day - so he's lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one student can't stand to witness this budding relationship: Ian decides to destroy the friendship between the black boy and the golden girl. By the end of the day, the school and its key players - teachers and pupils alike - will never be the same again. The tragedy of Othello is transposed to a 1970s' suburban Washington schoolyard, where kids fall in and out of love with each other before lunchtime, and practise a casual racism picked up from their parents and teachers. Watching over the shoulders of four 11-year-olds - Osei, Dee, Ian and his reluctant girlfriend Mimi - Tracy Chevalier's powerful drama of friends torn apart by jealousy, bullying and betrayal will leave you reeling.

Othello Retold

New Boy

'O felt her presence behind him like a fire at his back.' Arriving at his fourth school in six years, diplomat's son Osei Kokote knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day - so he's lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one student can't stand to witness this budding relationship- Ian decides to destroy the friendship between the black boy and the golden girl. By the end of the day, the school and its key players - teachers and pupils alike - will never be the same again. The tragedy of Othellois transposed to a 1970s' suburban Washington schoolyard, where kids fall in and out of love with each other before lunchtime, and practise a casual racism picked up from their parents and teachers. Watching over the shoulders of four 11-year-olds - Osei, Dee, Ian and his reluctant girlfriend Mimi - Tracy Chevalier's powerful drama of friends torn apart by jealousy, bullying and betrayal will leave you reeling.

Celine

Or a comment like "he's black but he's smart," and the inability to understand why that was offensive.

Osei preferred that in teachers; you knew where you were when they were strict. It was when they tried to be your friend that misunderstandings arose. 

Sabine Delorme

Loved this so book so much until the very last page. Unfortunately the ending completely destroyed it for me. The ending doesn’t very much feel like an ending. Not rushed or anything just senseless.

Tracy Chevalier brings Shakespeare’s Othello—a harrowing drama of jealousy and revenge—to a 1970s era elementary school playground. Arriving at his fifth school in as many years, diplomat’s son Osei Kokote knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day—so he’s lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one student can’t stand to witness this budding relationship: Ian decides to destroy the friendship between the black boy and the golden girl. By the end of the day, the school and its key players—teachers and pupils alike—will never be the same again. The tragedy of Othello is transposed to a 1970s suburban Washington schoolyard, where kids fall in and out of love with each other before lunchtime, and practice a casual racism picked up from their parents and teachers. Peeking over the shoulders of four 11 year olds—Osei, Dee, Ian, and his reluctant "girlfriend" Mimi—Tracy Chevalier's powerful drama of friends torn apart by jealousy, bullying, and betrayal will leave you reeling.

William Shakespeare's Othello Retold: A Novel

dorah luxieux

i don't know how to feel about this book. i enjoyed reading it even though it took me a long time. its a version of shakespear's othello and i don't read shakespear unless its for school but i decided to give this book a chance and im glad i did. it made me realize how different a black person is from a white person. now i already knew this, but it opened my eyes even more. no matter what you'll look, feel, and be different from them.

Sonja H

Ein Schultag, ein neuer (dunkelhäutiger) Junge, Liebeleien und Intrigen unter Sechsklässlern - meiner Meinung nach keine besonders gelungene Neuinterpretation von "Othello". Ich fand es langweilig, konnte mich nicht in die Situation hineinfühlen und eigentlich interessierten mich die nicht besonders gut erzählten Ränkelspiele auch gar nicht. 
Das bisher schlechteste Buch aus dieser Reihe.

1970s, in a suburban D.C. schoolyard. Starting his fifth school in five years, Osei Kokote, a diplomat's son, hopes to survive his first day. He becomes friends with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one student, Ian, is determined to destroy the budding friendship between the black boy and the golden girl.

Moray Lyle McIntosh

Shakespeare’s Othello is always powerful, always uncomfortable and always timely. It’s testament to the writing and, unfortunately, the continuation of human vice and strife that this should be so more than 400 years after it was first performed. Tracey Chevalier has made a bold choice in the framing of her Hogarth rewrite, choosing to recast the familiar characters as children and set all the events during a single elementary school day. Othello therefore becomes a coming-of-age story in which the protagonists confront racism, jealousy and sexual prejudice. Some of these elements work better than others.

The children are curious when they notice Osei in the playground one morning. He stands out not only as the titular New Boy but also as the only black student. They are curious and uncertain, they whisper in groups and there is more than one racist remark. As Osei (“O” because it is easier for Western tongues) negotiates his way through the trials of finding his place in a new school and combats the semi-innocent prejudice of his peers and the knowing hostility of some of his teachers he meets Dee, our Desdemona. She’s attracted by his calm and his difference and they are soon “going” together in the sudden and ephemeral way of children, sowing unease and raising eyebrows amongst children and adults alike. What will Dee’s mother (apparently very strict and conservative if we are to believe the vague hints) think about her daughter’s relationship with “the bl-, I mean new” boy? From the side-lines our Iago (Ian), the playground bully, is disgusted and plots the downfall of the couple. Chevalier cleverly works in some of the key aspects of Shakespeare’s play, with a strawberry-decorated pencil case becoming the gift and favour destined to come between the lovers. Unfortunately some of the keys themes of Othello work better than others.

The racial aspect of the play is given an interesting perspective by the youth of the characters. Chevalier convincingly represents how easy it is for children to learn and adopt the prejudices of their elders and how these can utterly, and dangerously, define the identities of others. Racism is, after all, a frankly But there is also the ability of children to upset and reject these preconceived ideas, to accept people simply as themselves. When contrasted with the deeply unpleasant attitudes of one teacher in particular the changeability of the children offers some measure of hope. Choosing to set New Boy in the 1970s was a little more puzzling. While on the one hand it allows Chevalier to frame her story amongst the later, more radical Civil Rights activism of Black Power, Black is Beautiful and the Black Panthers, a new (represented by Osei’s older sister) it could easily, and perhaps more powerfully, have been set today. After all we haven’t solved these problems and many feel we are moving backwards rather than forwards with the alt-right representing the modern “acceptable” face of racism and prejudice.

The main problem with the story is that the original is so inescapably mired in sex and violence. It’s about sexual jealousy and women’s lack of control over their interactions with men. Every action and conversation policed and judged and laid open to criticism and accusation, and so often violence. This is not to say that this aspect of the play is irrelevant, we’ve tackled sexism no more successfully than we have tackled racism, but these children are so young that it is not as convincing or as impactful as it could have been. Of course the oversexualisation of children and their relationships with their peers and their elders is an important current theme but some of the responses and attitudes of these children do not fit. They are too deeply felt, too violent, too thoughtful. 

Iago, that repository for so much human vice, is not well-suited to the body of an eleven year old, particularly one who motives and personality are so little explored. There are hints of a difficult home life, the influence (and reputation) of several older, possibly delinquent brothers, and brief mention of possible abuse. This isn’t enough. Any situation which can create a child with worrying tendencies towards casual, sexual and racial violence at such a young age needs to be dealt with more thoroughly and sensitively. His relationship with his “girlfriend” Mimi as well as that of Osei and Dee may represent a concern with the sexual (im)maturity of young children but it fails to really offer insight. It’s a difficult thing to write children well, especially when they are dealing with issues we consider, rightly or wrongly, to be adult. In this case I can’t help but think that making the characters even a few years older, or allowing these relationships to develop over a longer period would have served the story better.

Jeni Enjaian

Incredible.

With apparent ease, Chevalier translated the story of Othello into American history and thus created a story so tragically beautiful, like Shakespeare's play, that one finishes the book ready to cry. Set in a single day in a Washington, DC elementary school in the 1970s, O, Dee, Ian, and the rest of the characters deal with real life issues and tell a tragic story with lessons anyone can learn. 

I highly recommend this book.

Sabine Delorme &
New Boy by Tracy Chevalier

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Sabine Delorme &
New Boy by Tracy Chevalier