The Bronx Masquerade Class Discussion

http://www.nikkigrimes.com/books/bkbronx.html

I really enjoyed reading this book and discussing it with my group. I believe that The Bronx Masquerade touched on numerous diversity issues, not just ethnicity. This text included kids that struggled with learning disorders, kids that desperately just wanted to be loved, overweight students, etc. I think that this text is a great book for children to read because there are countless ways to relate to a specific character or learn from certain characters or themes in this book.
During our class discussion, I know quite a few people had an issue with the fact that Nikki was putting certain issues and connecting them with a person based on the color of their skin. Some people thought that this is putting negative stereotypes with these ethnicities and is unfair. After our class discussion and semi debate, I read the Nikki Grimes' website which explained reasons as to why she wrote the book the way she did. She said that she actually knew people like this and the teacher in the story who organized the poetry readings was a real person and was her friend. This made me think twice about our discussion in class. I understand where people were coming from saying that Nikki is putting negative stereotypes with certain ethnicities but at the same time, she was just writing about actual experiences that have taken place in her life. Reading her website and seeing her very own perspective made me realize her point in writing this story. She has a great theme she tries to portray in this text overall and that is you should not judge someone on based on outward appearances. I honestly enjoyed this book and loved the fact that every character in the story had their own voice and shared their own experiences.