The Brand New Kid by Katie Couric and illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
Appropriate for ages K – 5
Contemporary Realistic Fiction
Have you ever moved to a new town or city and you were the new kid in school? In The Brand New Kid, Lazlo is new to the Brookhaven Elementary school and is having difficulty fitting in and feeling accepted. See who befriends Lazlo as he tries to adjust to his new school and his new peers.
In the picture book, The Brand New Kid, it’s the first day of school and best friends Ellie McSnelly and Carrie O’Toole learn they are in the same second grade class with Miss Kincaid and they are very excited. Lazlo S. Gaskey on the other hand, is brand new to the school and he is nervous for his first day. The other kids notice that Lazlo is different looking with his really blonde hair, bright pink lips, very blue eyes, and strange voice. As the days go by, the kids begin to pick on Lazlo by throwing papers at him in class, not picking him for a team, and tripping him in the cafeteria. As weeks went by, Lazlo kept getting made fun of and just tried to prepare himself for the next taunt and tease. One day after school, Ellie noticed Lazlo’s mother with tears in her eyes. She was upset that her son was having trouble fitting in at his new school and was thinking about pulling him out. So Ellie decided to ask Lazlo if he wanted to play with her after school one day. They played soccer and chess, and Lazlo’s mom even made them a strudel. Ellie and Lazlo seemed to really get along, but the next day other students asked Ellie why she was hanging with Lazlo. Ellie told them that Lazlo “might look strange and have an accent, but if you get to know him, you’d like him.” So the students decide to take Ellie’s advice and everyone, including happy Lazlo, go play soccer on a beautiful day.
I really liked this book because everyone can relate to being left out at least once in their life. It provides a good lesson on how to make someone fit in when there feeling left out. The theme of fitting in and meeting new friends will grab the students’ interest because these are contemporary problems they might be dealing with themselves. I also liked how they used a new kid from a different culture. Now a days, it’s normal for a classroom to have a mix of different ethnicities and cultures among the children so the setting seemed real and appropriate to the storyline. Not only is being a new kid to a new school difficult, but being a new kid from a different country is even harder to adjust to. So I liked how they incorporated that aspect into the book so that it can also be used as a multicultural lesson. I also enjoyed how it was a rhyming story. Most of all, the storyline was a relatable concept these elementary school children have to deal with on a daily basis of meeting new kids, fitting in, and trying to be accepted by their peers.
The Brand New Kid is a perfect book to read aloud on the first day of school. On the first day of school, everyone is nervous so this book would be a great opener to welcome everyone into the classroom. There is a good lesson in the book that teaches children how to be kind and accept everyone for who they are even if they are from a different culture than you. After reading this story, you could engage the students’ thoughts by asking them what kind of feelings Lazlo might have had to deal with being the new kid. The book never said how Lazlo was feeling so the students would have to make inferences. Then you could also ask the students if Lazlo came into their class tomorrow, what could they do to make him feel welcomed? Instead of doing writing, an oral discussion of a book is the best way to interpret how the students comprehended the story just by listening to their moral judgments and opinions.
Massachusetts ELA Frameworks
Key Ideas and Details & Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
