Awards
2003 Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner
Synopses & Reviews
A Coretta Scott King Award winner! Using the structure of a poetry slam, Nikki Grimes' award-winning novel is a powerful exploration of self, an homage to spoken-word poetry, and an intriguing look into the life of eighteen urban teens. This anniversary edition--celebrating ten years of this wonderfully evocative work--will feature discussion questions, testimonials from teachers, and an all new introduction from the author.
"All of the [students], black, Latino, white, male, and female, talk about the unease and alienation endemic to their ages, and they do it in fresh and appealing voices. Rich and complex."
Kirkus Reviews
"As always, Grimes gives young people exactly what they're looking forreal characters who show them they are not alone."
School Library Journal
"Readers will enjoy the lively, smart voices that talk bravely, about real issues and secret fears. A fantastic choice."
Booklist
Review
"A flowing, rhythmic portrait of the diversity and individuality of teen characters in a classroom....Competent and reluctant readers alike will recognize and empathize with these teens. As always, Grimes gives young people exactly what they're looking for real characters who show them they are not alone." School Library Journal
Review
"[A]lmost like a play for 18 voices....[The characters] are rich and complex teens, and their tentative reaching out to each other increases as through the poems they also find more of themselves." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[B]eautifully crafted poems....Grimes addresses many of today's teen issues through the characters' unforgettable voices and poems. In the spirit of Gil Alicea's memoir The Air Down Here, this book will be an exciting addition to urban public and school libraries and will serve well in teen poetry classes, speaking to the poet in every teen who picks it up." VOYA
Review
"With such short vignettes, the characters are never fully realized, and the message about poetry's ability to move beyond color and cultural boundaries is anything but subtle. Even so, readers will enjoy the lively, smart voices that talk bravely about real issues and secret fears. A fantastic choice for readers' theater." Gillian Engberg, Booklist
Review
"Grimes is adept at introducing people through their essays and their poetry and connecting the next voice to what has come before....[U]ltimately what this book is about [is] developing students' pride in themselves and their potential, helping them to communicate among themselves and in the wider world of their families and community." KLIATT
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
Honoring ten years of a Coretta Scott King Award winner!
Using the structure of a poetry slam, Nikki Grimes' award-winning novel is a powerful exploration of self, an homage to spoken-word poetry, and an intriguing look into the life of eighteen urban teens. This anniversary edition--celebrating ten years of this wonderfully evocative work--will feature discussion questions, testimonials from teachers, and an all new introduction from the author.
About the Author
Nikki Grimes conveyed the fire-in-the-belly fervor of a Harlem girl who knows she was born to write in Jazmin's Notebook, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. In My Man Blue, a Booklist Editor's Choice and Newsweek Children's Books of the Year selection, her artful words expressed a boy's journey from skepticism to trust. And now with Bronx Masquerade she presents a rich chorus of eighteen voices, singing openly about ideas, feelings, and questions things that open minds, invite debate, provide release. An accomplished poet, novelist, journalist, and educator, Ms. Grimes was born and raised in New York City and now lives in the Los Angeles area.