Ready for the school year: Nouveau vs. Neuf

Question

"j'ai acheté un sac à dos qui est très à la mode en ce moment, et j'ai pris un nouveau stylo-plume et beaucoup de cartouches d'encre."

Why isn't neuf used here? Nobody, generally, buys a used object when going back to school.

Céline Pickard · Accepted Answer

Bonjour William,
Un stylo neuf would be grammatically fine but it would oddly emphasise "brand-new condition" as if contrasting with a used pen, which isn't the idea here. Here, the point is that the student has got a new pen for school (i.e. a fresh acquisition), not specifically that the pen is unused rather than second-hand. Finally, the English sentence includes "new" rather than "brand-new" (so as to remove the ambiguity).
However, we decided to accept "neuf" as an option.
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !