Bronx Masquerade
By Nikki Grimes
Winner of the
Coretta Scot King Award
Report By: Seth Love
Grade: 7th
Teacher: Language Arts Teacher Unknown
Date: Sunday August 03, 2003
Time: 11:04
Bronx Masquerade's setting varies from place to place. There are three main settings. A High School, the ghettos of the Bronx, and many mental settings that occur inside students' heads. The setting usually occurs in the in the high school. More pacifically, Mr. Ward's classroom. The reason is; Mr. Ward holds a in class poetry event called Open Mike Fridays. The book Bronx Masquerade is centered around Open Mike Fridays. The time setting in this book is 2002. There for it is recent.
There are many different characters in the story. One of the two main characters is Tyrone Bittings. Tyrone thinks he has no future, so school is a waste of time. He is very racial towards Caucasians. This is proven in the beginning of the book, Tyrone says that white people are always talking about some future he has, and that white people do not know any thing about what his life is like. As the reader progresses through the book you see that Tyrone begins to develop tolerance for Caucasians. He begins to like school because of Mr. Ward's Open Mike Fridays..
The other character is Mr. Ward. Mr. Ward is tolerant of other races and thinks that school is a time to learn and understand others. In the beginning of the book you see that his students do not respect him. Tyrone thinks that Mr. Ward is "a lightweight do-gooder who would last five minutes in this neighborhood". But as the story progressed Tyrone produces respect for Mr. Ward.
Bronx Masquerade is about a high school class. This class is filed with individuals going through trials and tribulations. For example, Gloria Martinez has a baby, and Tyrone Bittings' father died because of a drive by shooting.
These individuals learn how to express their feelings. They receive this help from Mr. Ward, the study of the