Craft, Jerry (1963-…), is an American author and illustrator. Craft won the Newbery Medal in 2020 for his graphic novel New Kid (2019). The Newbery Medal is an annual award given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American children’s literature published in the preceding year. New Kid tells the story of Jordan Banks, an African American boy entering a largely white middle school. Craft combines humor, social commentary, and sketches from Banks’s notebooks to highlight the struggles the boy encounters. Craft also wrote two sequels, Class Act (2020) and School Trip (2023).
Craft was born on Jan. 22, 1963, in New York City. He graduated from the city’s School of the Visual Arts in 1984. He worked in advertising before finding work in comics, including for the publisher Marvel Comics. Craft created the comic strip “Mama’s Boyz,” syndicated nationally from 1995 to 2013. With his two young sons, he co-wrote the middle-grade novel The Offenders: Saving the World While Serving Detention! (2013).
