false 3041813 0312378866 9780312378868 176 82 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3041813.Brooklyn_Bridge 4057 Karen Hesse 7891 1453 1 1 false Sat Jan 03 06:20:36 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 06:29:25 -0800 2009
First of all, there is too much here I've read before. There's the gruff relative with a secret heart of gold doing good works--that's Uncle Chris in Kathryn Forbes' "Mama's Bank Account". There's characters and plotlines from"All of A Kind Family and even "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn"

Then there's the fact that this book has multiple personality disorder.
There's the historical fiction/family story. There's the tales of poor kids living under the bridge. There's some sort of ghost story. They DO tie together, but only at the very end and just barely and not in a satisfying way. It makes the whole thing disjointed.

Perhaps librarians, teachers and other adults who read this book will get a lot from it. But I don't think kids will have the patience to do so.
Karen Hesse can write characters that live vividly--even when she does it in blank verse.
But that's just not the case with this book.]]>