Between The Lines by Nikki Grimes
 | Welcome to Mr. Ward's classroom, where poetry is studied, composed, celebrated, and performed. Between the Lines paints poignant portraits of students who are members of this unique class. With the encouragement of a caring teacher, these high schoolers endeavor to understand and express themselves through verse. Through the eyes of Darrian Lopez, an aspiring journalist of Puerto Rican heritage, readers follow the lives and dreams of this diverse group of teens. Grimes uses newspaper headlines written by Lopez and personal narratives, interspersed with student-created poetry to tell the individual and collective stories of these promising poets. The volume concludes with a school-wide poetry slam. Many of the stories are painful. While the portrayals are realistic, the finale affirms the value of each individual and offers hope. |
 | We throw words on the wind, poems, stories. We hope they rise like bubbles, then hitch a ride on a cool cloud or cold current and return to earth as nourishing raindrops or fragile snowflakes, |
| Even the invisible occupy a certain space. Me? I can't seem to find a single place it be seen. To be heard.  |  Numb, I sit on the edge of the bed Mami y Papi share. Shared. I feel light as the ghost my mother has become. Her picture on the bedside table looks blurry until I wipe my eyes. |
| Don't tell me my beautiful Black mind is a terrible thing to waste if you're gonna let the world toss it aside. Please! Say there's a way out, a way up. |  |
 | "Troubled kid" tells you exactly nothing about the trouble my pops has seen or Moms or me. |
| Every breath I take is dedicated to pressing back the walls, forcing them to move by the sheer strength of my stubborness. |  |
 | It's time for me to tell the mixed-up girl in the mirror that, as a matter of fact, she's more than enough. She's plenty. |
Review and poetry excerpts from an uncorrected text.
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