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From: Jonathan Hunt <jhunt24>
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 00:45:31 +0000
And I'd love to see the CSK jury take a long, hard look at BRONX MASQUERADE by Nikki Grimes. The book clearly wears its heart on its sleeve and requires a willing suspension of disbelief, but I think it's a winner.
First of all, with its combination of interior monologues and spoken word poetry this is a wonderful variation on the verse novel. Grimes uses a variety of poetic forms and devices, liberating the book from the low-grade free verse that characterizes too many verse novels. And the narrative form--monologues introducing open mike sessions-?comes necessary rather than merely a literary conceit, another good marriage of content and form. One student, Tyrone, serves as sort of a one-man Greek chorus, observing and commenting on the action, reminding us that these poems are not being offered up into a vacuum, but rather into a dynamic community--and that they are having a positive impact on that community.
And second, compared to other novels which feature an equally dizzying array of narrators such as BAT 6, SEEDFOLKS, and WITNESS, this one succeeds very well. (Not surprisingly, all these books feature community as a strong theme.) The voices in BAT 6 tend to blend together after awhile, although to be fair, the community is quite homogeneous. The voices in SEEDFOLKS and WITNESS come from a more diverse, heterogeneous community, both in terms of age and ethnicity. These voices are also given added support by the book design in the form of portraits, illustrations in SEEDFOLKS and phographs in WITNESS. The voices from BRONX MASQUERADE are more distinct and genuinely unique than any of the previously mentioned novels. Grimes does not rely on book design, nor extreme voices. So well drawn are the characters, so interested in them do we become that several reviews have hinted that it is frustrating to spend so little time with them. And so it is.
Jonathan
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Received on Thu 12 Dec 2002 06:45:31 PM CST
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 00:45:31 +0000
And I'd love to see the CSK jury take a long, hard look at BRONX MASQUERADE by Nikki Grimes. The book clearly wears its heart on its sleeve and requires a willing suspension of disbelief, but I think it's a winner.
First of all, with its combination of interior monologues and spoken word poetry this is a wonderful variation on the verse novel. Grimes uses a variety of poetic forms and devices, liberating the book from the low-grade free verse that characterizes too many verse novels. And the narrative form--monologues introducing open mike sessions-?comes necessary rather than merely a literary conceit, another good marriage of content and form. One student, Tyrone, serves as sort of a one-man Greek chorus, observing and commenting on the action, reminding us that these poems are not being offered up into a vacuum, but rather into a dynamic community--and that they are having a positive impact on that community.
And second, compared to other novels which feature an equally dizzying array of narrators such as BAT 6, SEEDFOLKS, and WITNESS, this one succeeds very well. (Not surprisingly, all these books feature community as a strong theme.) The voices in BAT 6 tend to blend together after awhile, although to be fair, the community is quite homogeneous. The voices in SEEDFOLKS and WITNESS come from a more diverse, heterogeneous community, both in terms of age and ethnicity. These voices are also given added support by the book design in the form of portraits, illustrations in SEEDFOLKS and phographs in WITNESS. The voices from BRONX MASQUERADE are more distinct and genuinely unique than any of the previously mentioned novels. Grimes does not rely on book design, nor extreme voices. So well drawn are the characters, so interested in them do we become that several reviews have hinted that it is frustrating to spend so little time with them. And so it is.
Jonathan
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Received on Thu 12 Dec 2002 06:45:31 PM CST
