Linda Lipko's Reviews > Hope Was Here

Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
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it was amazing

This 2001 Newbery Honor award winning book is so breathtakingly poignant that I struggle to write a review that would do it justice.

It is filled with genuinely real people, real pain and honestly portrayed real-life situations.

Sixteen year old Hope Yancey has many reasons to give up hope. Life is difficult. As a tiny baby she was abandoned by her mother. Raised by her wonderfully sensitive and kind Aunt Audie, she learns to persevere.

Aunt Audie is a restaurant cook and manager; Hope is a waitress. When a colorful co-worker steals their money and their hope, they move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney Wisconsin to manage the Welcome Stairway Diner.

There they find rotten politics, a corrupt corporation and a tainted policeman. Balanced with this is the owner of the Welcome diner, a honest, open, sincere man who runs for Mayor to displace the long-term incompetent, dishonest incumbent.

In Mulhoney Wisconsin the good people find love, renewed hope and they learn that where the heart breaks it also heals.

Highly recommended and destined to be my #1 read of 2010.
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Reading Progress

Started Reading
March 14, 2010 – Finished Reading
May 6, 2010 – Shelved

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