Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Bronx Masquerade

I really liked this book. I think Nikki Grimes did a great job getting issues that are hard for students and people in general to talk about. There are several interesting quotes in this book. While reading this book, I had several questions and wanted to get people's thoughts on them.

Question 1: Do you think that the title "Bronx Masquerade" and Open Mike Fridays had any correlation with the idea of inclusion?

My personal thoughts are that a masquerade is where people hind behind costumes so others do not know who you are. Open Mike Fridays was a way for students to express opinions and not really be judge. So in ways, I think that Nikki was really smart with the title.

Question 2: Has to deal with the insider/outsider debate. One of the major debates for outsiders was the face that they can break down stereotypes on the inside group. Nikki Grimes is an insider to this group yet she still used stereotypes in a way to break them down. Which type of author would you use in your classroom based on that finding?

2 comments:

Valerie W. said...

My other association with masquerade is that it is a party, that one has fun dressing up and also revealing oneself... I'm curious to hear whether you found any points in the text that tie into the title!

I hope you'll write a post letting us know how your group responded to your question!

Mrs. Dobson said...

My group felt that the masquerade was just a costume party and that the only thing that relate the two events Open Mike Fridays and Masquerade is that you don't judge people based on what they are wearing.