Banned Books 2024

  Paige Holley Dr. Ellis Banned Books 5 February 2024 The Bronx Masquerade   In the first half of  The Bronx Masquerade  by Nikki Grimes students in Mr. Ward’s class find that they have more similarities than differences by listening and sharing their poetry in class on Fridays. Each student faces real world struggles that impact their personality and thought process. Students shared aspects of poverty, body images, fear of failure and more through writing poetry. However, as the novel progress’s readers can see a clear shift in students outlook on their classmates and their futures. The Bronx Masquerade gives readers a valuable lesson regarding expression and gaining confidence through artistic expression.    The sharing of personal feelings, thoughts, and beliefs through poetry has allowed students to feel heard. The confidence they have gained has not only become apparent in their poetry but their actions as well. One student who has shown a lot of growt...

  Paige Holley Dr. Ellis Banned Books 1 May 1, 2024 The Hate You Give   In the second half of  The Hate You Give  as readers we see a lot of development in the main character Starr, her family, and the community. After the death of Khalil and emotional turmoil and the events that followed his death shook the whole community causing many characters to re-evaluate certain aspects of their life. One character that I think showed a lot of development is Maverick.    Readers see that Maverick and now his daughter Starr both struggle with feelings of being a “sell-out”. Both characters have expressed the difficulties of to staying true to their community while trying to progress in a new area. A valuable lesson regarding identity and community is to be learned within the novel, and I do not think the similarities between Starr and Maverick’s journeys are unintentional by Thomas.    In the first half of the novel Maverick has the tendency to put his comm...

The ending of  Gender Queer  offers valuable perspective regarding personal self-discovery. One aspect that I like about  Gender Queer  is that it is a memoir, so it follows Maia throughout eir entire life. I think that this offers readers a realistic perspective regarding the speed at which understanding yourself as an individual takes.    In the first half of the novel, we as readers get to follow Kobabe along eir journey through elementary, middle, and high school. The second half of the novel follows Kobabe through college and adulthood. One takeaway that I believe is beneficial to readers with similar backgrounds is the conversation between Kobabe and em Aunt Shari. In this passage Kobabe’s aunt expresses that she believes “…this trend of FTM, trans, and genderqueer young people” (Kobabe 199) is a form of misogyny, and “a deeply internalized hatred of women.”(Kobabe 199) Although, Kobabe does not agree that e is making these decisions for those reasons...