false 3041813 0312378866 9780312378868 176 82 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3041813.Brooklyn_Bridge 4057 Karen Hesse 7878 1452 3 0 false Thu Feb 19 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 05:23:57 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 19 19:11:29 -0800 2009
Fourteen-year old Joe Mitchom tells the story of two months during the summer of 1903. Alternately, mini-chapters tell the story of the bridge children, those abandoned by their families or orphaned, who band together for safety and family. These children are haunted by the ghost of a boy. Only toward the end of the book does this arrangement make sense.

This is a Best of the Best title, and deservingly so. It vividly recreates life in a Brooklyn neighborhood - the immigrant experience, daily life for children, and the draw of amusements like the Brooklyn Superbas baseball club and Coney Island. While we experience death and sadness, it does not overshadow the "in America we can do anything" story.

I liked how it gave a slightly more affluent perspective of the same time period as "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." ]]>