Logo image
  • BookDragon
  • About
  • The Blogger
  • Review Policy
  • Smithsonian APAC
 
43482
post-template-default,single,single-post,postid-43482,single-format-standard,stardust-core-1.1,stardust-child-theme-ver-1.0.0,stardust-theme-ver-3.1,ajax_updown_fade,page_not_loaded,smooth_scroll

BookDragon Blog

16 Feb / Between the Lines by Nikki Grimes [in Shelf Awareness]

*STARRED REVIEW
“We live in the same city, go to the same school, but each of us has a different story,” a student observes. “What we have in common is trying to figure out how to tell it.” Welcome back to Mr. Ward’s English class, introduced in Nikki Grimes’s Coretta Scott King-winning Bronx Masquerade (2002), where high school teens learn to harness everyday words to create poetry, community, and even their very selves. In Between the Lines, referred to as a “companion novel” to Masquerade, Grimes (The Watcher; Chasing Freedom) repeats her highly successful format, presenting multiple voices through a hybrid combination of revealing prose and affecting poetry.

Proud Puertorriqueño Darrian with his New York Times-aspirations turns his librarian/mentor’s advice that “poetry, more than anything else, will teach you about the power of words” into action and transfers into Mr. Ward’s classroom. As the weeks pass, Darrian witnesses how words transform his classmates: Chinese American Li tests her independence, blonde-and-blue-eyed African American foster child Jenesis learns trust, Marcel and Valentina release some of their injustice-fueled anger, Kyle strengthens his heart and spirit, Angela becomes brave, and overwhelmed Freddie finally opens to friendship.

Poetry provides the medium through which these teens express, explore, declare, grow: “when a story is true, you have to tell it … to write it in a way that will force people to stop and read it” – and hear and feel it. With Mr. Ward’s “Open Mike Friday” fast approaching, students get ready to showcase their revelations-in-verse before a live audience of family and friends – including a few familiar Masquerade poets who return to encourage and enlighten. Each will be “standing out, but standing together.” Let the slam begin.

Discover: In Nikki Grimes’s companion novel to Bronx Masquerade, eight will-be poets reveal stories of loss, fear, challenges, courage, and so much hope.

Review: “Children’s & Young Adult,” Shelf Awareness, February 16, 2018

Readers: Children

Published: 2018

By Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Poetry, Repost, Verse Novel/Nonfiction, Young Adult Readers Tags > Assimilation, Between the Lines, BookDragon, Bronx Masquerade, Coming-of-age, Family, Friendship, Identity, Immigration, Love, Nikki Grimes, Parent/child relationship, Shelf Awareness
1 Comment
  • Pingback:Diverse Novels in Verse for National Poetry Month [in School Library Journal] | BookDragon Reply

Post a Comment
Cancel Reply

Smithsonian Institution
Asian Pacific American Center

Capital Gallery, Suite 7065
600 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20024

202.633.2691 | APAC@si.edu

Additional contact info

Mailing Address
Capital Gallery
Suite 7065, MRC: 516
P.O. Box 37012
Washington, DC 20013-7012

Fax: 202.633.2699

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

SmithsonianAPA brings Asian Pacific American history, art, and culture to you through innovative museum experiences and digital initiatives.

About BookDragon

Welcome to BookDragon, filled with titles for the diverse reader. BookDragon is a new media initiative of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC), and serves as a forum for those interested in learning more about the Asian Pacific American experience through literature. BookDragon is inhabited by Terry Hong.

Learn More

Contact BookDragon

Please email us at SIBookDragon@gmail.com

Follow BookDragon!
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Looking for Something Else …?

or