Whilst this was an interesting idea it didn't work for me. Maybe because I am not american it didn't really appeal to me.

I didn’t enjoy this book at all ,although I have liked most of the author’s previous work.It didn’t seem true to me-I don’t know any 11 year olds who behave that way ,and I couldn’t believe it was a modern reworking of Othello.
Sorry-I won’t be recommending this one.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review which reflects my own opinion.

Unfortunately, this book just was not for me and I did not finish it so will not be reviewing it on my channel.

I love the idea behind this novel, but sadly it didn't quite work for me and I ended up DNFing it. It wasn't gripping me and that's a problem I've had with the Hogarth Shakespeare books in general. Commissioning these books from established authors such as Chevalier and Atwood and Winterson doesn't make them feel any less like the response to a university assignment rather than a novel.

If I really wanted to I could have pushed through and finished this book, but why do that when there other are books I could love waiting to be read?

Ultimately it's not a bad book, it's easy enough to read and the setting of a playground works when we consider just how much "she said, he said" plays a part in Othello, but I don't think it's necessarily a good novel, and that's a problem I've had with this series as a whole.

Very clever retelling of the Othello story. Showing the pettiness of politics and rivalry in the correct setting of the schoolyard.

For the full review go to tumblr https://joebloggshere.tumblr.com/post/175512227566/new-boy-by-tracy-chevalier-although-i-love-tracy

I love Tracy Chavalier and i love Shakespeare also.
this series of reinterpretations are better than the other. Highly recommended.

Not for me. It probably didn’t help that I don’t know the story of Othello but even so this story was just unbelievable. Everything happened in one school day and they were supposed to be 11 years old. I have an 11 year old and they do not talk like that or kiss on the playground. Didn’t enjoy it.

I’ve read a couple of other Tracy Chevalier novels, At the Edge of the Orchard and The Last Runaway, which I’ve loved so I was eager to read this. What I hadn’t realised is that New Boy is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series from Penguin Random House which are Shakespeare plays given a modern rewrite by famous author. I’m not a fan or Shakespeare, not am familiar with the tale of Othello which it follows, but I thought that wouldn’t matter as I love Tracy Chevalier’s writing. New Boy was a disappointment as it did not grip me in the way her other novels have.

New Boy is set in the playground of an elementary (Junior in the UK) school in Washington DC in 1974. It centres around love affairs and jealousy of central characters. Osei Kokote, son of a Ghanaian diplomat, has just arrived at this school as his father’s job moves the family around the world a lot. Osei is the only child in the school to have black skin which causes quite a stir amongst the pupils, staff and parents alike. However, one pupil, Dee, immediately takes to Osei and helps him settle in on his first day. This causes many ructions amongst Dee’s friends Mimi and Blanca and their respective ‘boyfriends’ Ian and Casper. Ian is the school bully and goes to extraordinary lengths to cause problems to others and now sets his sight on the new boy.

Apart from finding the racism over-emphasized (compared to life in my school in the UK in 1974) my main issue was all the love interests going on with 11 year olds. I am mystified why this novel wasn’t set in a school with 14/15 year old pupils which surely would have made the plot more believable?

The whole book is based on one day only which made it quite dull as there was a lot of detail about skipping and other playground games. I’ve really enjoyed great detail on unusual topics in Tracy Chevalier’s other novels such as growing trees from seed to quilting but I didn’t find the playground detail interesting.

It wasn’t what I expected but I am very much looking forward to reading all of Tracy Chevalier’s other novels as I think her writing is marvellous. I think this is less appealing to me as she had to stick to the basic plot so it is not her best work. It has left me mildly curious to read the other works in the Hogarth Shakespeare series if only to educate myself to some of the plots of other Shakespeare plays which I am not familiar with.

With thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for offering a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review in June 2017. I was on holiday at the time I got the email without my NetGalley login details. By the time I was home it had been archived so I wasn’t able to download it. I’ve since got hold of a copy to read, hence the late review.

Chevalier has retold Othello in the most wonderful of ways. A true modern classic of the innocence of children and how race still plays a key part in the culture of America.

New Boy is the second book I’ve read in the Hogarth Shakespeare series (the first was A Gap in Time. Hag-Seed and Vinegar Girl are on my radar). I was initially attracted to Chevalier’s school playground setting – truly, playgrounds can be vicious places and eleven-year-olds, merciless. However, the school setting and analogies seemed heavy-handed by the end and the important inner dialogue of the main characters suffered from being kept within the realms of what eleven-year-olds might think. As a result, the motivations for their actions were clumsy.

2/5

Tracy Chevalier makes a serious effort to adapt Othello, but too much along the lines of the not-very-successful high-school film of the same name.

I always approach a retelling of a classic in something of a quandary. To be successful, I feel a reinterpretation needs to shed new light on the original work. A good example that always comes to mind is Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea which presented a very different picture of the character of Bertha Mason from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. On the other hand, a retelling needs to be recognisably linked to its source material. But if you’re not familiar with the source material, do you get the same value from the retelling? Conversely, if you are familiar with the source material, do you lose focus on the new interpretation because you’re constantly looking for the connections with the original? Although well-written, in the end I was ambivalent about New Boy.

The action takes place over a single school day giving a sense of a timescale similar to watching the play. The book is divided into five parts – Before School, Morning Recess, Lunch, Afternoon Recess and After School – mirroring the five act structure of Shakespeare’s play. There are also references to acting and performance scattered throughout the book.

‘Then Dee gave the boy the precious class jump ropes, and they began to laugh, throwing their heads back as if there were no audience but the two of them, performing for each other.’

‘And himself, the new boy, standing still in the midst of these well-worn grooves, playing his part too.’

‘They were like characters in a play who needed an extra scene, a thread to pull them tight.’

In spite of the variation in names, it’s a simple matter to match the children and staff in the book with their equivalent characters in the play. I did find the ‘casting’ of Brabantio (Desdemona’s father in the play) as Mr Brabant, the teacher, slightly puzzling. But perhaps the author had in mind the role of teacher as ‘in loco parentis’.

The setting of the school playground with its petty rivalries and short-lived alliances was interesting. In the main, the characters were believable as eleven year-old children. The exception to this was Ian (who doubles for Iago). He seemed unrealistically wise beyond his years and his ability to manipulate, read others’ intentions and strategize just didn’t ring true for someone of his age.

What the book does very well is convey Osei’s feelings of being an outsider, of being different, of being regarded as something of a novelty and the casual, ‘everyday’ racism he experiences.

‘The kids who were friendly at school but didn’t ask him to their birthday parties even when they had invited the rest of the class....The assumption that he was better at sports because black people just – you know – are, or at dancing, or at committing crimes. The way people talked about Africa as if it were just one country.’

Unfortunately, I feel the children’s – and to some extent, the staff’s – sketchy knowledge of Osei’s cultural background and the fact he’s forced to simplify his name would be recognisable today. I’ve experienced situations in the workplace where people from India or Nigeria have found it easier to ‘anglicise’ their name or adopt a nickname rather than try to get colleagues to pronounce their given name correctly.

Although the book held my interest, in a way, I felt it would have worked equally well as a story about difference and racial prejudice without the constraints of following the story of Othello.

I received a review copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Random House UK, in return for an honest review.

I love Tracy Chevalier's writing. I don't just mean Girl with a Pearl, but also books like At The Edge of The Orchard. She is especially talented at telling big stories with so few words. I love that.

Here, she does it again. I picked this up, not because of the Shakespeare connection - that whole idea of rewriting Shakespeare into current-day novels has more appeal (I think) to the authors and publishers who are interested in selling more copies (and I don't begrudge them that) than it does to the fiction readers. We're not all that concerned about how closely the storylines follow; we miss most of the analogies, and to be honest, we don't really mind that we do. So whilst I appreciate and trust that in a literary sense, I have been Othello'ed, I read this more for the pure enjoyment of savouring the author's every word. And I did.

You can see the story in the blurb, but my comments are that I loved the characterization of Osei. I also thought the racism was nicely done - more shocking due to the casual normalcy with which it was written. I think that gave it an even greater impact.

My gripe is almost equivalent to my high praise for its brevity. Although I've mentioned already that I love the way Tracy Chevalier tells powerful tales in so few words, in this instance, I found myself rushing on through to get to the conclusion, and now I feel a re-read is in order, because I probably missed so much. I suppose, given the level of enjoyment the first time around, there's nothing wrong with that!

Loved this little book. And yes, you can read it, even if your Shakespeare - like mine - was limited to reading one play at school.

Tracy Chevalier, Black Boy (2017)

With some determination and patience, I have come out of the Middles… by finishing some books, and dropping others (the short story collections, which I may always come back to anyway). And because I don’t want to forget my train of thoughts, I’m skipping over a dozen of book reviews to address the question: was Tracy Chevalier right to transpose Othello to an elementary school?

To be frank, I was rather unconvinced. Yes, it was a daring move. Othello is Osei Kokote, a diplomat’s son from Ghana, arriving in an all-white elementary school of D.C. (in the 1970s). He’s in 6th grade, which makes him 11 years old. Desdemona is Dee, a blond angel and teacher’s pet who is loved and admired all around the playground. The whole tragedy unfolds within a day, from first bell to recess to lunch to after-school. I found myself torn between two different attitudes:

If you start this book knowing it’s a retelling, it becomes rather obvious and the pieces of the tragedy click together without much surprise. You appreciate the subtle nods to Shakespeare here and there, but you’re just here for the performance, not really for the story itself.

If you don’t know about Othello, then the story seems a bit weird. I don’t quite believe that 11-year-olds are able of such passion and manipulation within such a short period of time. They don’t sound like kids that age, but rather maybe 15 or more? I couldn’t help but check repetitively what age are 6th graders in the US, because I couldn’t really place the characters’ thoughts and feelings and actions with their supposed age (especially as I have a 9 almost 10-year-old at home). Osei’s reactions to Iago (sorry, Ian) lies and manipulations are a bit implausible because he’s the son of a diplomat and has had many experiences of changing schools and meetings new (and probably equally prejudiced) classmates.

I was in the middle, because my knowledge of Othello is shaky at best. I appreciated the force of the tragedy and the race aspect that Tracy Chevalier chose to highlight. Osei is the new boy in school, but he’s also the only black boy, and the way teachers and kids react is so cruel and racist, that it is the real trigger of the tragedy, rather than jealousy.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.

This is a powerful and poignant retelling of Shakespeare's Othello. I read the original and its modern predecessor back-to-back and, in my humble opinion, thought Chevalier did justice to this timeless story from the renowned bard.

It was a bold and interesting option to transmute the original from an epic tragedy to the experiences of a handful of children, during just one school day on a playground. This truncated time period and microcosm community is used as a stage for the wider, modern political and social world. If Shakespeare wrote of the conspiracies of man, then Chevalier drew insight to the pettiness of it. Her young cast of characters are every bit as scheming, intuitive, and pack-minded as their ancient counter-parts and this proved that the same prejudices are, sadly, every bit as prevalent centuries later.

From the first moment I discovered Shakespeare for myself I adored his mix of high drama with "low" humour, how he managed to combine laughter with tears. His history plays were always my favourite and I found myself struggling with some of his most famous plays, especially Romeo & Juliet and Othello. Strangely enough, both were made more appealing to me by Bollywood adaptations, Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela and Omkara respectively. They gave me a new insight into the stories that made me reconsider my previous judgement of the plays. Chevalier has now done the same with her adaptation of Othello. Thanks to Hogarth and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As I said above, I initially didn't like Othello, at all. I thought it was overly dramatic and Othello himself also rubbed me wrong. When I watched Omkara, however, I gained a whole new understanding of the play. By transposing the play from its Western setting and the cultural baggage its collected over the years, the film presented its themes in a new and interesting way. The effect of racism and colourism, the differences in class, Iago's feeling of betrayal and Desdemona's powerlessness in the face of Iago's scheming and Othello's paranoia felt a lot more real. The story deals intensely with how we see ourselves. Othello is worried his race will always colour how people see him, no matter how successful he is. Desdemona is aware that her position and skin colour should stop her from following her heart, but believes that her love should help her overcome those obstacles. Iago is intensely jealous and I've always thought of him as a man who feels much more is owed to him without putting in the work. These people have so much to loose, especiallt in their own eyes, that talking about their fears becomes almost impossible, allowing Iago's intrigue to work. Omkara shows us these developments very well and I was hoping for the same from New Boy. Although Chevalier definitely refigures some of the play's themes in an interesting way, something about the novel felt strangely shallow.

From the blurb I was expecting New Boy to be set in high school, not an elementary school. Setting it at such an early stage in life, all the characters are "reduced" to 10 to 12-year old children, which brings up some really interesting topics. At this age, children are still very much copying what they see in adults and Chevalier shows very clearly how racism, for example, is learned and copied. She also shows portrays the desire for popularity that starts showing itself at this age very well. However, I couldn't help but feeling that the story of Othello lost some of its spark in this setting. Some of the story elements that feel so dramatic and poignant in the Shakespeare play are undermined by the melodrama of an elementary school setting, especially since New Boy takes place during a single day. O and Dee 'go with each other' within what seems like an hour and are somehow deeply attached to each other despite their young age, and similarly the feelings of jealousy and betrayal also arise during this one day. These children are very much acting out what they have seen adults do, and although that is interesting, this means that at the heart of it we don't get the same exploration of the self, but rather a commentary on society.

Osei, or O, is the son of a Ghanaian diplomat who has moved around for much of his young life and now finds himself the new boy once again towards the end of a school year in the 1970s. Chevalier dedicates a lot of time to showing us how O has experience being new, how he has developed certain strategies of coping both with the suspicion of anyone new and with the different forms of racism and prejudice he frequently encounters. Chevalier makes him an incredibly sympathetic character and I felt almost saddened by how quickly this characterisation dissolved when the plot really took off. Within a single day O seems to forget everything he's learnt and this didn't feel entirely realistic to me. Similarly, Dee seemed like a very level-headed and smart girl, yet once she starts 'going' with O she lost some of her sparkle. Perhaps it's also simply that I can't wrap my head around 11-year olds becoming this fascinated with each other so quickly or that a schoolyard bully could come up with such a convoluted ploy to hurt the other students, but the novel didn't feel as immersive and deep as I would have liked for it to be.

Tracy Chevalier is a great writer and I loved her writing in Girl with the Pearl Earring. She knows how to set a scene and how to describe those tormenting emotions. There are great moments in New Boy where this does show, especially when we see the teachers betraying their own racism, but perhaps it is the relative brevity of the novel, less than 200 pages, that prevents her from going deeper more frequently. Because of the reasons described above I feel this novel swims somewhere between Middle Grade and YA fiction. The lessons to be learnt from reading New Boy are very obvious and in many ways it is a good novel to set up a conversation with a child about racism and bullying. Switching between the narration of the different children, Chevalier is able to show multiple points of view, which works occasionally. But except for some moments with O, New Boy doesn't delve very deeply into the insidiousness of inherited racism and the obsession with popularity. I think Hogarth's range of Shakespeare adaptations is a brilliant idea because the reason his plays are so popular is because they touch on a range of intensely human emotions. I will definitely be reading more of the series, even if I didn't connect with New Boy quite the way I hoped I would.

I enjoyed New Boy but it didn't entirely work for me. For a young reader, however, this is a great introduction to the themes that make Othello a fascinating play. However, for an adult reader I don't think this novel holds quite enough to make it a worthwhile read. I'd recommend this to fans of Middle Grade and YA fiction.

Review on blog, cross-posted to Amazon and GoodReads.

This book shows how lies and bullying can get totally out of hand. It shows how quickly lies and jealousy can escalate events and in this case literally lead to hurt. It was interesting to learn about 1970s American feelings through Osei's eyes. I feel that the book was too short and too easy a read.

When she arrives at school one day, Dee notices the new boy before anyone else and forsees he will have an impact on the world she lives in. Little does she know. This is Washington DC in the 1970s. A new black boy is starting his first day at an all-white school. ‘New Boy: Othello Retold’ is not the usual novel you expect from Tracy Chevalier. Part of the Hogarth Shakespeare collection of novels by contemporary writers re-telling Shakespeare’s most famous plays, it is thought-provoking, ambitious, but not totally successful.
Modernising such a well-known classic drama is always going to be problematic, with readers who love or hate it. ‘Othello’, possibly Shakespeare’s most political of plays, is about love, jealousy, sexual bullying and manipulation. Difficult subjects for a school. Some reviewers think this book should be marketed to adolescents but for me, the novel’s flaw lies in its timeframe. The action takes place over one school day so the arrival of Osei and his relationship with Dee charges from flirting, friendship, commitment to caressing, whispering and hurtful jealousy between the hours of nine in the morning and four-ish in the afternoon. There is simply too much to cram into one day. I had less of a problem with the arc from flirting to jealousy, remembering the intense emotions of being pre-adolescent. However my perception of the world in which the story is set was not helped as, being English, I wasn’t aware that the top year of grade school means Dee, Osei, Ian and Mimi are 11-years old. I thought they were older.
How different it would have been to set it across Osei’s first week at school, allowing space for each character to be explored. The nastiness of bully Ian could be explored in depth, instead of passing references to his brothers whose examples of extortion he imitates, and his father who beats Ian for swearing. ‘His father had taken his belt to him early on to make clear that swearing was his domain, not his son’s.’ There is a deeper tale of manipulation & bullying trying to get out. But ‘New Boy’ is shorter, at 192 pages, compared with Chevalier’s most recent novels – ‘At the Edge of the Orchard’, 305 pages; ‘The Last Runaway’, 353 pages – so no wonder the story feels constricted.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

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Laura Eats Books
New Boy by Tracy Chevelier
2 Star Review for Netgalley

O is the new boy on the playground, the son of the diplomat starting in his third school in six years. Being the new boy alone would set him apart from his new classmates who have known each other all their lives, but his being the only black student in an otherwise totally white school sets him apart as the dangerous Other.

Chevelier’s setting of the story just a while in our past makes the reaction to his presence more believable than it would be in present day, but even this setting is quite vague. However, her setting of the story in a playground, and the main characters as sixth grade classmates is inspired and is the saving grace of the novel. The boys and girls who are figuring out how power comes to play in the dynamics of a classroom and a playground, in their changing friendships and budding experiments with their sexuality are the ideal players in a story that spins on jealousy, desire, power and difference.

Sadly, the novel fell flat in the way adaptations sometimes do. I want to love the Hogarth Shakespeare series but with the exception of Margaret Atwood’ s Hagseed, they just feel like a waste of time.