Review by Ian Keogh
As established over two previous books, Jordan Banks is one of the few African American kids at the prestigious Riverdale Academy, but before ending his high school days there’s the school trip to Paris.
Jerry Craft is now on very familiar ground, having established a fair sized cast over two previous books. Because they didn’t quite fit Drew’s story in Class Act, Jordan’s clever home drawn strips were dropped, but they’re back here, each with a point cleverly and amusingly made, as are Craft’s visual metaphors. Thankfully this time there are no ugly shopped-in illustrations.
A recurring topic is the way some elderly white folk behave around African Americans, assuming they’re all thieves, Craft showing the prejudice a fair percentage of Americans endure in their everyday lives. This occurs during the course of a prolonged prologue sequence for which you have to be really invested in the cast. It’s all genial slice of life moments, but very little happens.
Once the cast arrive in France things pick up a little as a reason for confusion and mismatched combinations of people is efficiently set up. Craft is very attuned to the way that African Americans are constantly being judged in their own country, yet for much of the book not to the way many Europeans view Americans. Eventually, though, School Trip benefits from some thoughts about expectations that people in another country speak English, and how Americans define people by their employment. Jordan’s strips highlight other positive differences, and the quantity and quality of observations eventually overcomes the sometimes forced humour and drama.
While the cartooning is technically good, with the characters showing what they feel, it’s also disappointing. Without the French references in the dialogue you wouldn’t know much of the story is set in Paris as Craft makes so little effort to place the cast in the city.
It’s the final third of the book before School Trip really hits its stride. The problems the students have with each other are funnelled into the single ignorant character, and Craft uses him to supply some responses to arguments African American readers will hear all too often. Providing them with a couple of answers early in life is a great idea.
It seems as if one really big error creeps in when it’s mentioned that Paris time is six hours behind East Coast USA, when in fact it’s always earlier in Paris, but it’s Craft playing on an assumption younger readers won’t know that.
While the charm and advice continue, the episodic nature of School Trip and the lack of effort made to supply Paris make the concluding portion of Jordan’s story slightly weaker than the first two volumes, but still with enjoyable moments.
