New Boy - Book Review

There are some story themes that just work no matter what century they're being told in. Shakespeare's Othello is one of those stories. And Tracy Chevalier retells it in her book New Boy, part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series, which features popular authors from today retelling classic Shakespeare plays.

In Chevalier's version of the story, it's 1970s Washington, D.C. Even though many African-Americans live in the city, there are absolutely none at the elementary school 6th-grader Dee and her friends attend. That is until O shows up. He's the new boy. A diplomat's son, though that doesn't matter to the students and teachers. All they see is the color of his skin, so they immediately assume that he's stupid, going to be trouble, too different for their suburban school.

And over the course of just one day, through the perspectives of Dee, O, Dee's friend Mimi, and the class bully Ian, we watch as a friendship strikes up between Dee and O, only to be struck down through the classic plot points of miscommunication and misdeeds.

I've never read Othello, so I can't compare the original play and this more modern-day novel. But I do think that Chevalier's version stands on its own. This story tackles the topics of race and class, and even though it's set in the 1970s, it still has applications to the way people act in today's society.

There are reading guide questions at the end of the book, so this would be something ideal to read as part of a book club, especially if you were going to read the play first so you could compare and contrast.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.