Bronx Masquerade | 
 enlarge | Author: Nikki Grimes
Publisher: Puffin
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy New: $2.21
You Save: $4.78 (68%)
New (41) Used (28) from $0.05
Avg. Customer Rating:  76 reviews
Sales Rank: 21451
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 4.1 x 0.4
ISBN: 0142501891
EAN: 9780142501894
ASIN: 0142501891
Publication Date: December 29, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New and Factory Sealed Item Fast Shipping
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Amazon.com Review
Open Mike Friday is everyone's favorite day in Mr. Ward's English class. On Fridays, his 18 high-school students dare to relax long enough to let slip the poets, painters, readers, and dreamers that exist within each of them. Raul Ramirez, the self-described "next Diego Rivera," longs "to show the beauty of our people, that we are not all banditos like they show on TV, munching cuchfritos and sipping beer through chipped teeth." And while angry Tyrone Bittings finds dubious comfort in denying hope: "Life is cold. Future?...wish there was some future to talk about. I could use me some future," overweight Janelle Battle hopes to be seen for what she really is: "for I am coconut / and the heart of me / is sweeter / than you know" They are all here: the tall girl, the tough-talking rapper, the jock, the beauty queen, the teenage mom, the artist, and many more. While it may sound like another Breakfast Club rehash, Grimes uses both poetry and revealing first-person prose to give each character a distinct voice. By book's end, all the voices have blended seamlessly into a multicultural chorus laden with a message that is probably summed up best by pretty girl Tanisha Scott's comment, "I am not a skin color or a hank of wavy hair. I am a person, and if they don't get that, it's their problem, not mine." But no teen reader will have a problem with this lyrical mix of many-hued views. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert
Product Description
When Wesley Boone writes a poem for his high school English class and reads it aloud, poetry-slam-style, he kicks off a revolution. Soon his classmates are clamoring to have weekly poetry sessions. One by one, eighteen students take on the risky challenge of self-revelation. Award-winning author Nikki Grimes captures the voices of eighteen teenagers through the poetry they share and the stories they tell, and exposes what lies beneath the skin, behind the eyes, beyond the masquerade.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 71 more reviews...
 Beautiful!!! May 7, 2008
This book was a good book. It went deep into the poet's soul. It also went deep into the poet's life. I am doing this for an English assignment. I wouldn't read this book because of what the cover looked like or unless I was told to do so. But after I read the first few chapters I was amazed at how judgment was wrong. Don't Judge a Book by its cover!!
Incredible April 3, 2008
Bronx Masquerade is story of many stories. 18 students share their stories, first in prose with the reader, then through poetry with their classmates.
This book is incredible. The author manages 18 different points of view, and the magical thing is the way in which they all connect. 18 teens who are so different and unique from each other, yet they all have things in common. You feel the growth in this classroom; at first no one really likes anybody else (hardly, anyway) but by the end no one feels alone anymore. They open up to each other through their poems, and there's always someone else who gets it, who gets what they're saying.
I read Bronx Masquerade all in one sitting. It grabbed me from the first couple of pages and I could not set it down until I turned the last one. The ending, by the way, was perfect. Everything about the book was perfect, actually. Highly, highly recommended.
 forced by school to buy it September 25, 2007
don't buy it unless you have to. our school forced us to buy/read it.
Bronx masquerade June 13, 2007
Have you ever read a book that was so axsiting and amizing? A book that would like to tell others about? The book I read is "Bronx masquerade." This book is about a kid who ended up in a bad neighborhood that wasn't his skin color type. Wesley Boone is a kid that does'nt want troble, but knows he is going to bump into trouble. The problem is that he is in a neighborhood with cholos and he is black. In the end of the book, Wesley Boone gets a gun to protect himself a ends up getting in trouble with gang members. Thats when Wesley was getting a hard time while walking home and he took out his gun and aimed at one of the cholos, then the cholos ran because they did'nt have any protection. To find out what happens, you'll have to read more.
I liked this book because it relates how hard it is for people with different colors to fit in also, decause of all of the exciting parts in the story thatleaves you breathless. Ialso like this book because its tells me that there are many problems in the city with vacist issue.
Bronx Masquerade May 12, 2007
As a middle school intensive reading teacher, I have to say this novel truly proves itself to be of high interest to low level readers. Both the boys and girls strongly relate to the text and poetry of the characters. There are also many creative ways to create interesting lesson plans for this text. I highly recommend it as a book that will engage evolving readers. Each of my students, who have professed that they hate to read anything- have asked me to keep the copies I bought for the class. I plan to give one to each student on the last day of school...so I'll be rebuying them for next year!! This is worth a shot: Any offers for donations to my class? I have 30 students.
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