Taking the elements of a Shakespearean tragedy and making it work in a modern setting is a big ask of any author but Tracy Chevalier pulls it off with ease.

I don’t think you need to know the details of Othello in order to enjoy this story it stands on its own merits.

This book is a brilliantly insightful look at the difficulty facing the new pupil of a school, and his efforts to fit in. In turn joyful and sad this book is beautifully written, but with a tragic undertone.
Highly recommend.

I have read all Tracy Chevalier’s books and enjoyed most of them but, I found this one hard going and had to skip to the end, not a thing I would usually do. I cannot put my finger on why I couldn’t settle to this one but, it hasn’t put me off the author however, I would download a sample from amazon before buying just in case!

I have read a lot of Tracy Chevalier's historical fiction and thoroughly enjoyed them all. This is something new and modern, and is a really interesting read. Updating Shakespeare's Othello to a 1970s elementary school in Washington DC, Chevalier has much to say about both gender and race politics. The novel is set over the course of a single school day, which makes it intense and engrossing. My only quibble is that the behaviour and understanding of sexual behaviour shown by the pupils does not quite fit with the age of the pupils; it would have been more realistic to have set the book among 14 year olds rather than 6th graders. That aside, this is a fresh and interesting novel and a fascinating change of direction from a hugely talented author.

I'm torn really, my personal reaction to this 'retelling' of Othello is that it merits two stars at best, because I really disliked the author's decision to set the story in an elementary school with a group of 10(?) year olds. I've eventually settled on three stars, because I can see this might work well for readers who are younger themselves and it's well written enough. I definitely felt that this slant made for a curiously soulless and passionless tale in comparison to the original though. Disappointing.

I can't say I disliked this, but somehow it had no emotion to it. I am not certain it reflected the intensity of a teen mind. Not quite recommended.

I was initially interested in reading this book, however my tastes have shifted and I do not think I will be able to get to it now. Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a digital copy!

This book was added to my shelf without me requesting it. I have tried to have it removed so it doesn't count negatively towards my ratio however Netgalley say they can't do anything about it which means I will never reach 100%. I feel that this is unfair so I an leaving a review without reading the book. I will leave 5 stars so that I don't have a negative impact on the book's score but for anyone reading this I want to make clear that I haven't actually read the book. I have done this to save my ratio. I never requested the book, I never had any intention of reading it and I have tried everything to get it removed. This was a last resort.

In the nicest possible way this has been a difficult book to read, finish etc..  The overall feeling of the book leaned heavily towards dark, oppressive and threatening. This book covers a single day, where friendships can be transitory, bullies can manipulate those who appear to be weaker, and where the adults are as casually racist as the kids.

Osei, from Ghana and the son/youngest child of a diplomat, is now used to being the new boy where ever he goes, and more specifically, the black boy in otherwise exclusively white neighbourhoods.

Osei arrives at his new school, makes an instant connection with Dee, who clearly seeks a father figure from one of her male teachers.  This puts the previous social order in jeopardy, as there is now an unknown quantity in a group of people who have otherwise grown up together.

There are plenty of cliques in the school, including the boys who play softball, and the girls who do skip rope.

Ian is the one who is the bully, who likes to control the school yard. He pretends to like O, but realises it's more interesting if he sets everyone off against each other, even over the smallest pretences, such as a pencil case and some strawberries.  Meanwhile O's older sister, Sisi, with whom he has previously had a good relationship, is now well into her teens, and has been "radicalised" by the civil rights movement and Black Power, and how "Black is Beautiful". Therefore he is hitting a new school where he has lost his connection to his closest female confidant, where the last token from her is used as a pawn by Ian to whip up jealousy (no one apart from Osei really understands the significance of the strawberry pencil case).

The story alternates between the group being in class (and the various dynamics of who gets to sit with whom) and the group in the playground.  Ian, in the Iago role, doesn't like the dynamic shift, especially in favour of someone new, who is black as well. Feelings are escalated, power plays are invoked, the naive get used and this all culminates in a devastating event in the playground, where lives are literally broken.

As I said, this was a tough book to read, and it got harder nearer the end, when you could palpably feel something is going to happen, and you fear how that will manifest. A good "alternative" read to the Shakespeare story, which some people can struggle with.

So happy to be given a whole budget to replenish our senior shelves in the school library. The books in there are far from appealing at the moment and I have been delighted to find books here that will intrigue, captivate and engross my senior students.

This is a fantastic read with characters they will be able to connect with, taking a classic story and remaking it in a time and culture they can really connect with. I'm going to apply for funding for a whole class set of New Boy as I'd absolutely love to teach this as a class novel...

It's great to read a book that does not feel formulaic and gives some credit to their reader's intelligence too. Young people are very fussy about the books they choose to read and in this time-precious day and age it really has to be something above and beyond the ordinary to get them to put down their devices and get their noses stuck in a book.

I think this is one book that will capture their imagination and keep them turning the pages until the end. This is definitely going onto my 'must-buy' list and I really look forward to seeing what the young people themselves think of this compelling clever and engaging novel.

I didn't know the story of Othello before I read this, and chose not to look it up. From this point of view, I found the book compelling. Once you're an adult you tend to forget that social hierarchies exist for children as well. The book wove this theme well into the story of an outsider, against the backdrop of racism in the 70's. An easy but powerful read, my only complaint is that it wasn't longer, with more time spent on developing the other characters.

I have read several books by this author and was pleased to receive an ARC from NetGalley in return for an honesty review.However,I found it hard to get into,as for me resetting Othello in an American elementary school in the 70s just didn't work.The theme of sexual jealousy didn't ring true when it was translated to a group of eleven year olds ,and the way they thought and spoke wasn't realistic- and having taught many children of that age in my teaching career,I have a fair idea of how they behave.
The book dealt well with the theme of prejudice and the feelings of the new boy,Otei,as the only black pupil in the school.The whole,story is set in one day,which also didn't really work for me.
So I am afraid on this occasion,I would have to say I really didn't enjoy the book and wouldn't recommend it-I think Shakespeare write the definitive version which can't really be improved.

I am a fan of Tracy Chevalier and have enjoyed every book of hers I have ever read and this too did not disappoint. A modern retelling of Othello, the love between a white girl and black boy and the racial prejudice that surrounds it set in the 1970's. I felt I got a real insight in to the thoughts and feelings as the well written characters tell the story.
A different direction from the author and rather powerful, a book I enjoyed.
My thanks go to the author, publisher and Netgalley in providing the arc of this book in return for a honest review.

What a heady mix from a modern retelling of Othello staged in a school in the mid 70's.

You can't read this without being drawn in, feeling all kinds of emotions from downright anger to sheer frustration.

I definitely think this book should be on the curriculum in schools, to either be a comparison to the original or to be read and discussed on it's values of children versus adults and how children can be easily led like lambs to follow the path of their parents.

I absolutely loved this, I wholeheartedly recommend this for a rollercoaster read and something to ponder over after the final pages have been read. I also recommend as a great book club read.

This was a very quick read, which I quite enjoyed. As billed, it is a take on the story of Othello, set in a class of 11 year olds in Washington in the 70s. The story takes place in the course of one school day. O arrives as a new boy, the only black pupil in the class. He is immediately befriended by Dee, one of the prettiest girls in the class. Racism, jealousy and revenge are all here, as you would expect. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

This isn't a perfect book by a long shot. The children are too young for the themes and events to be believable and far too much is crammed into one day.

Having said that, this is an easy read that I devoured in one sitting. It would make a good introductory read to the original Shakespeare, even if it does stretch the bounds of possibility.

A modern reimagining of Shakespeare's Othello, this sees a Ghanaian diplomats son, Osei, on his first day at a new school in an American suburb of Washington DC in the 1970's. Dee quickly befriends him, and Ian decides that he doesn't like this. He decides to undermine this friendship and dispose of O. Yes, racism comes in to play here. Both the learnt racism of the children (from their parents), and that of the teachers.
This is all squeezed in to a very Shakespearian time frame of a day: we all know that in a Shakespearian play, people fall in and out of love, get marries and murder one another within 24 hours. For this reason, I can forgive the more mature behaviour and plotting of the 11 year old children. It seems unlikely to me as a mother of an 11 year old, that real 11 year olds would necessarily behave in this way; but this is literature and an author can bend their story and their characters to however they want them to behave. The changeability of the children's affections ARE more realistic, however.
I think this would probably be a great book for students to read at school before they access the original Othello. It would have made a great 'compare and contrast' exercise for me when I studied Othello (many years ago!).
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and the ending is a real 'heart in mouth' moment!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Hogarth for my copy of this book.

I am not comfortable reading Shakespeare but have always admired his fantastic storytelling ability . Tracy Chevalier has managed to rework this classic tale into a pseudo modern fable transporting the reader into a 1960’s American high school. Much of the action beginning and ending in the class or playground where such tragedy unfolds. I was fixed to the story wanting to know what happens to Dee and O and how Ian’s machievillian plotting weaves it’s disastrous spell on all. . Now I want to read Othello! A great book for reading groups.

An excellent reinterpretation of Shakespeare's Othello. At first I wasn't sure the 1970s American school setting would work but Tracy Chevalier has a achieved a wonderfully fresh take on love between a white girl and a black boy; we see the tragedy unfolding with all the intensity and drama of the original. I love the way she's transposed the various crucial elements of the story: the strawberry handkerchief becomes a pencil case decorated with strawberries, the poignant bedtime scene between Desdemona and Emilia is reimagined as a scene where Dee's hair is braided and all the elements of fighting and manipulation take place on the school playground. A tour de force.

With 'New Boy' Tracy Chevalier recreates the story of Othello in one school day in the life of Grade 5 pupils in a school in Washington.

Into this all white school of the 1970's comes diplomat's son, Osei Kokote. This is his fifth school & he is well aware that he needs an allie to help him survive. Golden haired Dee is fascinated by him and he readily accepts her friendly gestures.

The eleven year olds are at a stage where they make & break relationships within hours, but having a boyfriend/girlfriend is a mark of status. Ian, the schoolyard bully doesn't like the attention Osei is getting and plots to bring him down. His convoluted methods & the outright prejudice of Osei's teacher result in tragedy.

This book was so clever and well plotted but also intensely readable. Totally riveting! Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this- it will stay with me for a long time.