Bronx Masquerade

Grimes, Nikki. 2002. BRONX MASQUERADE. New York: Dial Books. ISBN 9780142501894.

BRONX MASQUERADE is the story of an English class that begins Open Mike Fridays. This is a time when students can read poetry they have written in front of the peers. Many students use this time to share their personal feelings.

Many readers will relate to the fact that students are seeing their classmates in a new light after learning more about their lives and struggles. Young adults tend to stereotype others based on past experiences. The students in Mr. Ward’s English class begin to see that even though they are different races they have more in common than they originally thought. They also re-examine the way they treat each other. On page 49, Janelle reads her poem “Inside” and shares her feelings about being overweight in her “thick casing.” Afterwards Tyrone thinks about the times he made fun of her weight for a laugh and “listening to her now, it don’t seem all that funny” (page 50).

In her review Diane Roback stated that ”… there may be too many characters for the audience to penetrate deeply” (2001). I thought this too as I was reading the book. Although the overall plot of watching students learn to love poetry and Open Mike Friday’s was easy to follow, the individual stories were hard to follow. It was neat to see the poems written from so many points of view, but it was hard to keep track of which person had told which story earlier in the book. There were two characters that were featured throughout most of the book and I feel like the reader could easily connect with them but the other characters were not developed enough.

The setting of the book in the inner city is important. One reason is that it explains many of the life experiences these students have gone through. Many of the students have lost parents and loved ones to violence. Some of the students talk about just trying to make it out of there alive.

Throughout the book there are words in other languages that aren’t translated. Most meanings can be determined through context clues but in my opinion it takes away from the story to have to try to figure out the words. I think many readers would just skip over the words they didn’t know. An example found on page 35 is, “He was a jibaro through and through. He couldn’t wait to get back to his precious mountains!”

Overall I would recommend this book to young adults. It is a good way to introduce and get them interested in poetry. “Grimes's creative, contemporary premise will hook teens, and the poems may even inspire readers to try a few of their own” (Roback 2001).

Reference List:
Roback, Diane. “Review of Bronx Masquerade.” Publishers Weekly 248, no 51 (2001): 92. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2056/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=127&sid=9dae787e-60cb-4eb3-b658-01d78b16409c%40sessionmgr115&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ% 3d%3d#db=lih&AN=5741711