Originally published in 2002, Bronx Masquerade is a book that begins with a Black boy named Wesley Boone. After he reads a poem for his English class, his classmates decide to read their poems aloud, too. For eighteen students, this turns into weekly poetry readings that result in them reexamining their preconceived notions about each other.

Twenty years ago, I had the monumental pleasure of reading Nikki Grimes’s novel in verse Bronx Masquerade for the first time. As a Black-Asian teen who was starting out as a poet and feeling out of place, this book was extremely validating and comforting to me. After learning that Nikki Grimes released a 2019 sequel to the book called Between the Lines, I felt I owed it to my teen self to read and review it.

As with Bronx Masquerade, this book’s main setting is a high school English class belonging to the teacher Mr. Ward. Taking place one year after the events of Bronx Masquerade, this book revolves around nine eleventh-grade students from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. One is a mixed-race Black girl who is a foster kid, while another is a Chinese girl learning to find her voice despite not knowing her parents’ language. The students write poetry and participate in the weekly Open Mic poetry readings that lead up to a boys-versus-girls poetry slam at the end of the semester, becoming closer as they learn more about each other.

One notable difference between this book and Bronx Masquerade is its point-of-view character, Darrian Lopez. Unlike the first book’s protagonist, Wesley Boone, Darrian has no prior knowledge of poetry when he signs up for Mr. Ward’s class. In fact, he aims to be a newspaper reporter. However, Darrian is advised to sign up for Mr. Ward’s English class by the librarian, Mr. Winston, who states that poetry will “teach him the power of words.” This results in a character arc that is mostly satisfying as Darrian learns to write poetry. The only issue is that we never get to see the yearbook article Darrian writes about the semester-ending poetry slam. It would’ve been a better way to conclude the book.

Another remarkable feature of this book is that the characterization of the students is tighter. Because the book focuses on only nine students in the leadup to their boys-versus-girls poetry slam, the reader gets a sneak peek of each student’s personal life before the other characters do. In addition, we see certain students getting to know each other outside the classroom, such as Darrian and Marcel and Angela and Kyle. 

As a result, the poetry that makes up the crux of the character development shines a little brighter, too. Each character shares one to three poems that put their feelings, experiences, and passions on display. Some highlights include Jenesis Whyte’s “Foster Kid,” Marcel Dixon’s “Sweep,” “Private Pain” by Darrian Lopez, and “Anxiety” by Angela Marie Bailey. These poems tackle various topics, ranging from racist drug sweeps to grief to personal insecurities. One line I enjoyed was from Jenesis’ poem: “Mostly, I march through my days / footsteps falling on deaf ears / even when I stomp.”

One final facet of this book that I enjoyed as a fan of Bronx Masquerade was seeing certain characters from that book return in this one, especially Tyrone Bittings and Wesley Boone. Not only does it show what they’ve been up to since the first book, but it lets them apply and pass on what they learned in Mr. Ward’s class to a new set of students.

All in all, Between the Lines is a triumphant follow up to Bronx Masquerade. While you don’t need to have read Bronx Masquerade to enjoy this book, it definitely enhances the experience if you have. With stronger characterization, heartfelt prose, and passionate poetry, Between the Lines takes the power of poetry to greater heights.