New Boy is Tracy Chevalier's contribution to the Hogarth Shakespeare retelling. The story is a retelling of Othello set in the 1960s/1970s suburbs of Washington, DC. My biggest issues with the book were its pacing and the shift in tone. The premise is really interesting--a playground version of the play with six graders as the characters as young O is a new boy in an all white school. However, the story both drags (it all takes place in one school day) and then shifts and moves too rapidly toward the end. O's character is well developed in the beginning, but by the end of the text he is almost one-dimensional. Likewise, the tone feels uneven. I expected the story to be dark--it is a tragedy after all, and most of the text maintains that sinister feel, but the ending is almost too much/unbelievable given that the characters are sixth graders.