Who we are today is not who we will be in the future.
This is the message bestselling author Jerry Craft, who is known for his popular graphic novel “New Kid,” had for Briarcliff Manor’s Todd School fourth and fifth graders, during a recent visit to the school.
“When I was your age, if I had looked at one of my current drawings, I would have thought to myself, ‘I can’t draw like that,’” he said to the students.
Craft also shared that he did not like reading books when he was a kid.
“I hated to read, and my teachers, who were against us reading comic books, replaced them with books such as ‘Great Expectations,’ by Charles Dickens,” he said.
Eventually, when Craft was a junior in high school, he began enjoying books.
“I knew I wouldn’t be able to read all 400 pages of the book, but then I realized that I could read 20 pages at a time,” he said. “I read 20 pages in the morning and 20 in the evening, and in 10 days, I finished the book. I couldn’t believe I finished it, and I realized that I actually enjoyed reading.”
Craft shared some of the inspiration for his books, as well as his journey in the publishing world and his many rejections from publishers.
“I felt rejected every time I got a rejection letter from a publisher,” he said. “There are times in your life when people will not believe in you, so you have to decide how much you can believe in yourself.”
He spoke about his decision to start his own publishing company in 2014.
“If you say no to things and stay in your comfortable little bubble because it feels safe, you will never branch out,” he said.
Eventually, he received offers from major publishers and had his first book published: “New Kid,” a story he loosely based on himself.
“In high school I started at a new school, and I was always the youngest and smallest in the class – I didn’t grow until I was a junior,” he said. “So I felt like a fish out of water.”
He shared the work it took to create the book.
“After I signed the contract to write the book, I spent 13 months working 14 hours per day on it,” he said. “What makes my book special is not the writing or drawing, but the re-writing and re-drawing.”
The book ultimately won the Newbury Medal, the Coretta Scott King Author Award and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers Literature. Craft is the only author to win all three awards.
Craft, who ultimately grew to be six feet tall, has a message for kids who feel like they are stuck.
“As someone who was always the shortest, I never thought I would grow,” he said. “I never thought I would be an author. I never thought I would be popular with people or travel the world. But you never know, so don’t think that how you are now is how you will always be. Some things you have control over and some things you don’t. But whichever way you go, you have to take what you are good at, what you excel in, and focus on that. I don’t draw very serious stuff, and I have friends who can draw something that looks like it’s a photograph. I do more cartoony stuff, so I embrace my limitations, and I make the most out of it.”
