School Trip Discussion Questions and Review post written by the Hobbit. This post contains affiliate links, you can find out more on our policies page or in the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog.
Know Before You Read
Book: School Trip
Author and Illustrator: Jerry Craft
Publication Date: April 4, 2023
Pages: 250
Reading Age: 10 and up
Genres: Graphic Novel; Coming of age; humor; Diversity
Warnings: Although there is a lot of humor, the book deals with some serious topics. If you do not want to be challenged don’t read School Trip.
Brief School Trip Summary
Jordan and all his friends are back in the third installment of Craft’s “New Kid” series. The final year of junior high is coming to an end and Jordan’s class at Riverdale Academy Day School (RAD) is going on various trips. Jordan and several of his friends are on the trip to Paris. As in the prior two books, there is plenty of humor, a lot of thoughtful discussion, and lessons to be learned as they navigate their way through “The City of Lights”.
Why Read School Trip
First, I would recommend that you read at least the first book in the series to acquaint yourself with the characters in the overall situation. School Trip rivals the first novel for excellence. Jordan is a budding artist (with perhaps some semblance to the author – see quotes below). Most of the book is in the third person, but it is interspersed with Jordan speaking through his drawings. This adds a great deal of variety to the overall art and is a winning point for this book.
There’s a great deal of humor in the book. Also, as the principal characters are about to enter high school, there is a lot of character development happening. This also applies to some of the adult characters but in a lesser way. School Trip, as well as the previous two books, deals frankly with topics that a lot of people don’t want to see addressed. Systemic racial and ethnic issues and attitudes, microaggressions, and book banning are just some of the topics that are handled well. This is not a “shout it from the rooftop” book – this book genuinely draws you into the lives of its characters.
One of the great things about this book is that there are no real villains. Andy, one of the primary antagonists, is on the trip. But after he is confronted by the honest feelings of some of his classmates, he begins to change. The novel has a lot of hope – even if you did make people think your donuts had bugs in them (yes, you need to read this highly humorous yet hopeful part). I would say this is a must-read.
Continue reading for our School Trip Discussion Questions and Quotes.
School Kids Quotes
The more time we spend with people who aren’t like us, the more we learn that they really are like us…
But how do you give someone a dream when they don’t even know that they’re allowed to dream?
in France, we work in order to live, but in America, it seems you live in order to work.
…you should never stop learning ’cause you’ll never know it all.
Do you really think that one day you’ll grow up to make some New York Times bestselling comic book that will win all the big, literary awards, get translated into different languages and then…what?… get turned into a movie?
Who knew that graphic novels were real books?
School Trip Quotes
School Trip Discussion Questions
Themes for Discussion: Caring for others, Friendship, Understanding Others, Racial and Social Equity, Banned Books.
- What do you think about Andy at the end of the book? How has he changed? What made him change?
- All the characters are unique. Which one do you relate to and how?
- One of the reasons Craft addresses book banning is, as he noted in a short afterward, because “New Kid” has been banned from some school libraries. What is he trying to tell his readers about book banning? Why is this a bad thing? (You can check out Jerry Craft’s interview below where he talks more about this book and book bans).
- Although only briefly mentioned, other kids from RAD are on trips within the US. Where inside the US would you like to go on a school trip? What place outside of the US? Why?
- Do you like graphic novels? How do you think they compare to comics and to print novels?
Thanks for reading our School Trip Discussion Questions and Review. For further reading:
We have reviews of the first two books:
–New Kid
–Class Act
For a fantasy read addressing some of the same issues, see our review of Amari and the Night Brothers
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