Imagine inner-city high school students, living in the Bronx. Most of them don’t think they have a future, or that they’ll even live to see the age of 21. And the one’s that do are told that they’re being stupid and that “you don’t get paid to dream”. “Forget about ‘white folk talking ‘bout some future…like we got one!’, Others say.”

There’s hardly a student at Abington High that ever has lived, or ever will live, in an inner city, where they / are the minority for a change. Some of them may think that they could never relate to person that did live that lifestyle. Reading Bronx Masquerade / will most definitely prove them wrong.

Reading this book is like looking into the private diaries of 18 high school students, each one different. Told partly in verse, each student has his or her own story to tell. It’s like any other high school where everyone has their own “crew”, and they don’t talk to certain other people. What brings them all together is their English teacher, Mr. Ward. He starts holding “Open Mic Fridays” where anyone can come and read poetry to their classmates. By standing up front with the microphone, and sharing their poems, they overcome fears and start forming goals and dream. They all start to connect and talk to people that they never thought they’d have anything in common with

Bronx Masquerade / may mention situations that many if us will never have to deal with; drive-bys, abusive boyfriends, and teen pregnancies, but the feelings we share are all the same. Almost everyone has worried about their future, or lack there of.

Most of us have worried that people would laugh at us if we told them what we really thought about something, or what our lives were really like. Readers will find a character to relate to in this book, and will love reading the poems, even if they are not into poetry. The book isn't really about poetry.

It is about speaking out and realizing that it’s not only in the Bronx that people cover up their real lives behind the masquerades.